Gingerbread cookies or Christmas cookies are deliciously spiced biscuits which are perfect to munch on a cold evening with a hot tea. The warm notes of the cookies will calm your senses and soothes your taste buds. While you can taste the ginger and cinnamon in its top notes the subtle flavors of the nutmeg and the sharp cloves will complement each other in captivating the right essence of a true winter snack. The best part is that you will love baking this and it’ll be fun to involve kids in the decorating part. Happy baking.
**Recipe card – Gingerbread cookies**
Ingredients (for the cookies)
**Wet ingredients**
Unsalted Butter – 170 gms
Brown sugar – 220 gms
Vanilla – ¼ tsp
Egg- 1
Molasses – 170 gms
**Dry ingredients**
All-purpose flour/maida – 416 gms
Baking soda -n3/4 tsp
Salt – ½ tsp
Powdered dry ginger – 1 tbsp
Powdered cinnamon – 1 tbsp
Powdered nutmeg – ½ tsp
Powdered cloves – ¾ tsp
**Ingredients for the icing**
Powdered sugar – 220 gms
Vanilla essence – ½ tsp
Milk – 3 tbsp
**Props needed
**
Electric mixer
Spatula
Cookie baking tray
Parchment paper
Measuring cups/measuring spoons/weighing scale
Large bowl
Whisk/sifter
Cookie cutters
**Pre preparation**
1. Measure and weigh all the ingredients.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius in ‘conventional mode ‘, for the first ten minutes and then change the mode to ‘bottom element heating’ for the next ten minutes.
3. Line the baking tray with parchment paper.
**Procedure**
Preparing the dough
1. In a large bowl, blend butter and brown sugar just until combined.
2. Scrape down the bowl and blend again for a few seconds.
3. Add egg, vanilla, molasses and blend again.
4. Scrape down the bowl with the spatula and blend again for a few more seconds.
5. In the same bowl add flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, powdered ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and sift them all together.
6. Mix gently until combined. Do not overmix.
7. After the cookie dough gets perfectly combined, divide the dough into two or more portions.
8. Tightly wrap the cookie dough in a plastic cling wrap and refrigerate for two hours to overnight.
**Cutting out the cookies**
1. Take one portion of the chilled cookie dough and remove the plastic wrap.
2. On a clean countertop, spread the dry flour generously. (optionally, work the cookie dough on a pastry mat on the countertop)
3. Place the chilled dough on the dry flour and place a parchment paper over that.
4. Start rolling gently but evenly to a thin sheet.
5. Dip the cookie cutters in a bowl of flour and start cutting in your desired shapes. Dipping the cutters in the flour ensures the dough doesn’t stick to the cutters and comes off easily.
6. Arrange in the cookie tray.
7. Bake the cookies in the preheated oven (180 deg) for 8 to 10 minutes until the cookies start to brown at the corners.
8. Take out the cookie tray and let the cookies stand on the hot tray for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack or plate and let it cool.
**Icing
preparation**
1. Add icing sugar, milk and vanilla in a large bowl and blend it until smooth and creamy.
2. Add a teaspoon of milk and blend again if the mixture is too thick and if it’s too thin add more icing sugar.
3. Transfer the icing mixture in a frosting pipe and decorate the cookies in your own creative way.
4. Add food colors to bring more fun.
**Substitutions**
1. Molasses can be replaced with honey; however, the flavor changes a bit.
2. Instead of brown sugar, you can add white sugar if you don’t mind a mild change in the flavor and color.
**Very important notes**
1. You can use store brought spice powders, but freshly ground spices give the unmatched flavors. Grind the spices in a coffee grinder.
2. Measure the spices after they are powdered.
3. You can also add lemon rind to infuse some citrus notes to the cookies.
4. All the blending and mixing are to be done only until the ingredients are combined. Do not over mix.
5. You can skip the vanilla in the cookie dough if you feel the flavors of the spices are good enough.
6. Let your imagination take control of you while creating new colors and designs in the icing part.
7. If you are using salted butter, skip the salt when you are mixing the dough.
8. When you dip the cookie cutters in the dry flour, remember to tap off the excess flour before cutting.
9. As you work with the remaining dough every time after the cuts are made, make sure to do it fast, because the dough gets warmer and makes it challenging to work with.
10. While portioning the dough, plan the baking of the batch clearly before wrapping.
#gingerbreadcookies #christmascookies
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