These gingerbread cookies are filled with delicious spices and can hold their shape through baking making them perfect for building structure or decorating!
As a part of making my Great British Bake Off Finale Showstopper I ended up making gingerbread. I have always loved gingerbread because of the spice that it can carry. It is just an all around delicious cookie. Plus, the dough does not expand while baking which make it perfect for creating shapes.
The durability of the gingerbread also makes it perfect for supporting weight and building structures. While I used gingerbread as a weight supporting element in my creation, this is also a great recipe for making gingerbread houses. And the recipe I have below will definitely be enough to make quite a structure.
Check out the Make section of MCG for more fun recipes like desserts and savory dishes. Leave a comment below and let me know what you think and how the recipe works for you!
Ingredients
The most unique part of gingerbread is the amount of spices that are needed to create the cookie. It asks for cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, and clove. I’m pretty sure that is all the spices in my kitchen that I use for baking. (maybe not, but it sure feels like it). The recipe also calls for a large amount of flour, but this is a large batch of cookies so I cannot say it is a surprise.
Process
Making the Dough – Dry Mix
The first step in the process of making gingerbread is making the dough. It starts out simple enough by whisking together what I would typically label as “dry” ingredients. This included the flour, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, clove, salt, and baking powder. I don’t know why sugar is not typically considered a dry ingredient but I guess sugar is just in a class of its own.
The baking powder is used to get the cookies some rise but there is no reaction to give a lot of rise. This will make the cookie still yummy to eat and prevent it from becoming too dense. But it will also restrict the amount of growth the cookie will see in the oven which allows the gingerbread to keep its shape.
Making the Dough
Then, in a large bowl, I creamed together the sugar and butter. I whip it for a long time in order for the mixture to get really creamy. After I added in the eggs one at a time. I like to crack the eggs into a separate bowl first to ensure that no egg shells get into the cookie mix. That is never pleasant.
Finally, I added in the molasses and vanilla extract to make the wet mixture. With all of the ingredients combined, it is ready for the dry ingredients. I do find that the wet mixture seems a little lumpy at this stage. I believe this is due to the butter. While the butter does not keep its hard shape, it is still at a temperature where it likes to clump. This typically goes away once the dry ingredients are added.
I added the dry mixture into the wet mixture in increments. This is to prevent the mixing paddle from flinging the flour out of the bowl. It still happens but less is lost. The bowl was really filling up with cookie dough at this point. The mixer definitely has some work to do.
I wanted the dough to be tacky but not sticky to the touch. That’s why I added a little extra flour at the end to help. With dough feeling like it is in a good place, I turned it out onto the counter and divided the dough into two blocks.
I rolled the dough out into 2 rectangles and wrapped each one separately. Then it is time to chill the gingerbread dough in the fridge. The cold helps bring the butter back to a solid which helps keeps the whole cookie together.
Rolling and Shaping
After I took the dough out of the fridge, I rolled it out to about a 5mm thickness. I used an elephant cookie cutter to cut the gingerbread cookie out to my desired shape. I placed each cut shape on the baking tray.
There were scraps left over after the first set of cookies were shaped. I rolled this back into a ball and back out to a 5mm thickness and cut out more shapes. This is okay to do so long as it is done quickly, otherwise the butter will melt and the dough will become difficult to deal with. If that happens, putting the remainder of the dough back in the fridge can help.
After cutting out all the cookies, it was time to bake! These cookies take a long time to back since they are a thicker type of cookie. But that is part of what gives them strength! I did have to hold myself back from eating all the cookies when they came out of the oven!
Reflections
This is a great gingerbread cookie recipe as it is very forgiving. It’s easy to work with and the flavor is delicious. I love adding a lot of spices into the cookies because it just such a good depth of flavor to the gingerbread. This is definitely a recipe that I plan on making again.
Lessons
Breaking Down a Recipe
I am very lucky to be able to put all of the dough in my mixer but remember that there is no problem in breaking down recipes to make them smaller. This recipe is hard to divide in half because there is not really a half of an egg. But divided 3 to make ⅓ of the recipe or even multiplying by ⅔ can work! The eggs really can be the deciding factor.
content
recipe
Gingerbread
Ingredients
- 8 ¾ Cup Flour divided
- 5 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- 6 Teaspoon Ground Ginger
- 1 ½ Teaspoon Allspice
- 1 Teaspoon Ground Cloves
- 1 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
- 1 ½ Teaspoon Salt
- 1 ½ Teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 ¼ Cup Unsalted Butter softened
- 1 ½ Cup Brown Sugar dark preferred
- 3 Eggs
- 1 ½ Cup Molasses
- 2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Sift together 8 cups flour, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, salt, and baking soda.
- Cream the butter and sugar on a medium-high speed for 5 to 10 minutes.
- Reduce speed and add in the eggs, one at a time. Then add molasses and vanilla extract.
- Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture in increments. Add the next increment while there are still white streaks in the dough to prevent overmixing. If the dough is still wet after the last increment, add in ¾ cup flour.
- Divide the dough in half and wrap each half. Chill for at least one hour, preferably overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 325 Fahrenheit.
- Roll out the dough to a 5 mm thickness. Cut out shapes and remove scraps, place shaped gingerbread on a baking tray. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
- Let cool for 10 minutes on baking tray before removing to a cool rack and let cool completely.
Leave a ReplyCancel reply