Gingerbread Cookies – My Go-To Easy Gingerbread Recipe
Gingerbread biscuits with an intense spicy flavor! These are delicious as is, but also fun to use for gingerbread house construction.
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It’s gingerbread season! Otherwise, known as winter. I fricking love holiday baking. I never really do “cookie boxes” because I don’t have the patience to make 12 different types of cookies, but I absolutely do have the patience to make unreasonable quantities of gingerbread.
And I mean wildly unreasonable.
Loml and I have a gingerbread house baking tradition and I swear every year the house gets larger. Not necessarily more elaborate because, I’ll be honest here, my gingerbread decorating skills are non-existent. But what we lack in design skills, we make up for in terms of sheer quantity of gingerbread.
This year I finally decided to write up the recipe in an organized manner and share it with you all. It took some editing… For some reason, the version I had written down just listed “4 tsp of spices” as one of the ingredients. Fear not, I’ve actually told you which spices to use in this version, but if you want to mix it up, feel free to get creative! I wouldn’t recommend curry powder, but Chinese 5 spice would be a surprisingly lovely addition to this recipe and if you have any favorite holiday baking spices definitely give them a try!
A few tips on gingerbread house construction:
Don’t assemble with royal icing.
Instead, use the royal icing to decorate the cookies and then use candy melts to assemble the house. Candy melts set really quickly, so they make the assembly process so much easier!
Decorate before you assemble.
Some people prefer to do things the other way around, but I find it much easier to decorate the cookie when it’s flat on the table than when it’s already assembled. Plus you can give everyone a wall and people can decorate simultaneously which is always fun!
Eat the house.
I know people make gingerbread houses as fancy display things, but honestly, this gingerbread is so delicious you have to eat it!
Enjoy your gingerbread cookie baking and eating and happy holidays, everyone!!
If you want some other holiday baking ideas, you could try these cookies or this cake !
My Favorite Gingerbread Cookies
Equipment
- Piping bags to decorate
- Cookie cutters
Ingredients
Ingredients – cookies:
- 100 g butter
- 100 g sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1.5 tsp ginger
- 1.5 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp cloves optional
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg optional
- 1/4 tsp cardamom optional
- 250 g flour
- 1 egg yolk Save the egg white for the icing
- 125 ml treacle or molasses
Ingredients – royal icing:
- 100 g icing sugar
- 15 g egg whites
Instructions
- Cream together the butter and the sugar in the bowl of a standing mixer or with hand held electric beaters.
- In a second bowl whisk together the salt, baking powder, baking soda, spices and flour
- Add the dry ingredients, the egg yolk and the molasses to the butter and stir to combine. It’s easiest to start this by hand and then set it on the standing mixer on low speed for about 30 seconds to make sure it’s fully combined.
- Cover the dough and refrigerate for half an hour.
- Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350°F and make the icing. To make the icing, combine the powdered sugar and egg white in the bowl of a standing mixer or a large bowl and beat with the whisk attachment (or electric beaters) on high speed until white and thick. Add water a tsp at a time until you reach a piping consistency. Spoon the icing into piping bags (you can also color some of it with food coloring if you’d like) and set the bags aside.
- Roll out the dough and cut out your cookies using your favorite cookie cutters or free hand it with a sharp knife.
- Place the cookies on a baking sheet lined with a silicon baking mat and place in the freezer for 10 minutes.
- Bake the cookies for 10 minutes.
- Let the cookies cool and then decorate!
I love spicy gingerbread and this really does deliver!