Gingerbread cookies - a spicy delicacy, which few can refuse. Crunchy and fragrant, it is an ideal addition to the festive table, as well as to the usual home tea. In addition, the preparation of ginger cookies does not require professional culinary skills. Here are some popular recipes for making this wonderful delicacy.
Step-by-step recipes for ginger cookies
Classic with cinnamon
Ingredients:
- 250 g of flour;
- 100 g butter (or margarine);
- 100 g of sugar;
- 1 egg;
- 1 tsp baking powder for dough (can be replaced with hydrated soda);
- 2 tbsp. cocoa powder;
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon;
- 1 tsp ground ginger.
Items that will be needed:
- two bowls;
- rolling pin;
- pan;
- parchment paper;
- a set of molds for cutting dough.
First you need to melt 100 g of butter to make it easier to mix with other ingredients. This can be done both in a microwave and in a saucepan.
In a bowl, rub the raw egg with sugar, then add the softened butter (or margarine). Stir everything until smooth.
In another bowl, mix cocoa powder, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, baking powder and flour.
Now it is necessary to combine the two masses into one. It is better to mix gradually so that it is more convenient to knead.
The dough should be tight. It must be left in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
At this time, you can prepare a workplace for rolling out dough, rolling pin, flour, baking sheet, parchment paper, and figures for cutting.
Cover the baking sheet with parchment paper on which the cut cookies will be laid.
After the allotted time, you need to get the dough and cut off 1/3 of the total mass. It is better not to roll out the whole mass at once, it is inconvenient and time consuming, moreover, at room temperature it will begin to thaw and become unsuitable for work.
Rolling pin and workplace is better to treat with flour so that the dough does not stick, after which you can start rolling.
The result should be a "pancake", not very thick, but not very thin, now the most fun part of cooking - cutting out the figures. It's simple and interesting, you can bring kids to work, they will like it.
It must be remembered - sometimes the dough sticks to the surface of the table, so the use of flour here will be very useful. The carved figures must be very carefully lifted so that they do not fall apart or break.
When the whole baking sheet is full (do not particularly try to cover it completely, leave space between the cookies, as they rise and increase during the cooking process), you should put it in the oven heated to 180 degrees and bake for about 10-15 minutes readiness (cooking time individually for each oven).
Constantly watch the cookie so that it does not burn. Put the finished pastry on a plate and let cool. Enjoy crispy spices!
Gingerbread Cookies Like IKEA
Ingredients:
- 200 grams of wheat flour;
- 1 egg;
- 100 g butter;
- 100 g of sugar;
- 2-3 teaspoons of honey;
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon;
- 1 tsp. ground cardamom;
- 1 tsp. ground ginger;
- ½ tsp carnations;
- 1 tsp. soda
Cooking:
- Butter must be melted: either beforehand let it warm at room temperature, or heat it in a microwave or in a saucepan on the stove.
- Grind butter with sugar.
- In addition to butter, it is necessary to melt the honey. This can be done by heating in a water bath or mixing with hot water. It is necessary to bring honey to a liquid consistency.
- Add butter and liquid honey to butter. Mix everything well with a fork or mixer.
- In a separate bowl you need to mix the spices: ground cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves. If the spices are not ground, as, for example, cloves, they can be grind in a mortar or grind in a coffee grinder. Professional chefs say that it is possible to give the liver a more tangible aroma and taste. As for carnations, 2-3 pieces are enough.
- Now we need to do flour. It is better to sift, then it will be softer, then add to the spices.
- The contents of the two bowls should be combined, but not immediately, but gradually pouring the flour mixture into the butter mixture and kneading the dough. After that, the resulting mass should be left in the refrigerator for 2 hours. You can wrap the cling film.
- Cover the tray with parchment paper.
- After two hours, the dough from the refrigerator should be divided into several parts. Leave one of them, put the rest in the fridge so that it does not melt.
- Roll out the dough. It is important to remember: the thinner the dough, the more crispy the cookie will turn out, but do not overdo it, otherwise it will constantly break and stretch.
- Next, you need to cut the figures with molds and lay them on parchment paper.
- The filled baking sheet is required to be placed in an oven heated to 180 degrees. Bake for about 5 minutes. The degree of preparation is determined by the color and density of the cookies.
Cooked cookies put on a plate and let it cool so that it hardens and becomes crispy.
Enjoy your meal!
Christmas cookies with ginger and icing
Dough:
- 380 g of flour;
- 120 g butter;
- 65 g cane sugar;
- 2 tbsp. honey
- 1 egg;
- ½ tsp soda;
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon;
- ½ tsp ground ginger;
- ½ tsp nutmeg;
- 1 bag of vanilla.
Glaze:
- 120 g of powdered sugar;
- 1 tsp lemon juice;
- food coloring;
- egg white.
Baking ginger cookies for the New Year:
- First you need to melt the butter.
- Next, you should mix this butter with sugar and two tablespoons of honey.
- Pour soda, ground cinnamon, ground ginger. Grind the nutmeg and add to the mixture. For a more delicate and soft taste, you can season it with vanilla (1 bag). Mix the resulting mass well.
- Beat everything with one chicken egg until sugar is completely dissolved.
- Now it's up to the flour: gradually add it and knead the dough. It should make a dense mass. Wrap the dough in food film and leave in the refrigerator for 30-40 minutes.
- Before starting work, prepare a rolling pin, baking sheet, lay parchment paper on it.
- You need to stock up on flour, it is needed for rolling dough, which always strives to stick to the table or rolling pin.
- The dough from the refrigerator should be divided into parts. Leave one of them for rolling, wrap the rest in the food film and send it to wait in the refrigerator for its time.
- Roll the dough to the desired thickness. Then it’s easy to cut the figures and put them on a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Now it remains to send the raw product to be baked in an oven heated to 180 degrees for 10-15 minutes (time depends on the characteristics of your oven).
- When the cookies are reddened and dense enough, you need to get it and put it on a plate.
After complete cooling of the spicy delicacy, you can proceed to its decoration.
Preparation of glaze:
- Separate the white from the yolk and whisk it at low speed with a mixer.
- Add lemon juice.
- Beat the protein with a mixer, carefully pour in powdered sugar. The icing should be thick, not very liquid, so that it was convenient to manage. The more powdered sugar, the thicker it is.
If you want to make a colorful and bright pattern on a cookie, you can add food coloring.
For decorating with glaze, pastry bags, pastry syringes are used, and if they are not available, ordinary bags with a cut corner are used. Cookies can be circled around the contour, draw loops and waves - to depict everything your heart desires!
To make dough less sticky to the table top and rolling pin, you can use a little trick: put all the same parchment paper at the workplace and sprinkle it with flour.
To gently lift the cut figure, you can use a silicone spatula. Pry the edge of the dough with it and lift the cookie so as not to stretch it and not tear it.
Be careful with the addition of ginger, cinnamon or cloves, these are very strong seasonings, which in excessive quantities give the liver a sharp or even bitter taste. If it happened that you accidentally "perepechili" sweetness, you can fix it by adding flour and sugar.
The lack of store forms for cutting is not a problem at all. You can do with improvised means:
- A regular faceted glass is an ideal shape for round biscuits.
- On the Internet, you can find your favorite stencil, print it out and then, applying to the rolled out dough, cut the figure with a knife along the contour.
Another way to decorate is to use a regular faceted glass. Circles are cut into its hollow part, and corrugated patterns are made on the surface of the biscuit bottom.
Gingerbread cookies can be both crispy and soft, depending on the thickness of the rolled dough:
- If you want to get a more gentle gingerbread option, then a thickness of 5-7 mm is enough. In the oven, it will rise and become fluffy and soft.
- If a crispy thin cookie is preferable, then 3 mm will be just right.
The icing dries out for about 8-10 minutes, so after decorating it is worth leaving the cookie in the place where it will quietly lie untouched.
The taste, shape, flavor of cookies depend on you. You can safely experiment and add nuts, candied fruits, food colors. The recipe for ginger cookies can be changed and add something of your own to it, the only thing that remains is the presence of cinnamon and ginger, otherwise it is your imagination and culinary idea. Good luck in cooking and bon appetit!
