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Desserts

Gingerbread Cookies

Learn how to make gingerbread cookies, spiced with ginger and cinnamon, from the classic Christmas recipe. Perfect for gifting or hanging on the tree.
Recipe Gingerbread Cookies
  • Difficulty Easy
  • Preparation 50 minutes
  • Cooking 30 minutes
  • Servings for 35 cookies

As Christmas approaches, it’s impossible to resist the scent of freshly baked gingerbread cookies. A true symbol of the holidays, these Christmas gingerbread cookies win over grown-ups and kids alike with their warm, spiced aroma. The magic comes from combining golden honey, sweet cinnamon and ginger, which together create a gingerbread cookie dough with a unique flavor and a texture that is perfectly soft or crisp, depending on how long you bake it.

Learning how to make gingerbread cookies is easy and fun: just follow a few steps for homemade gingerbread cookies that will fill your whole kitchen with their scent. The secret to making them special? A touch of honey that makes them even warmer and more comforting, as in the honey gingerbread cookies version. Don’t forget the cinnamon: for perfect cinnamon gingerbread cookies, just add a generous handful to the dough along with the ground ginger and cloves.

This gingerbread cookie recipe is ideal to make with the family, especially when it’s time to make the decorated gingerbread cookies with brightly colored icing and little sweet details. Try giving each gingerbread man his own look, hang them on the tree or pack them in bags for simple, original gifts. For flawless results, follow the tips for baking gingerbread cookies just right: a few minutes in the oven and their aroma will instantly bring the Christmas spirit into your home.

If you love spiced sweets and want to fill out your holiday cookie tray, also try Honey Cookies, delicate Pfeffernüsse Spice Cookies or Soft Glazed Ginger Cookies. Also worth trying are Gingerbread Cupcakes and classic Pain d’épices. Now make your soft gingerbread cookies with us and bring the joy of the holidays into every bite.

Ingredients for 35 cookies

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Method

  1. To make the Gingerbread Cookies, put the flour and the butter, cold from the fridge and cut into cubes beforehand, in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix at medium speed with the paddle attachment. When the mixture looks sandy, add the molasses, sugar, egg yolk, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, baking soda and salt and knead well until you have a smooth ball of dough. Cover it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for about an hour.
    Gingerbread Cookies, step 1: the spiced dough in the bowl of a stand mixer
  2. After the dough has rested, flour your work surface and roll out the dough with a rolling pin to a thickness of about 5 mm (1/4 inch). Using a cookie cutter, cut out as many cookies as you can from the dough and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, spacing them well apart.
    Gingerbread Cookies, step 2: cookies cut out of the rolled dough on a baking sheet
  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 °C (350 °F) for about 13 minutes, then take them out of the oven and let them cool completely.
    Gingerbread Cookies, step 3: the baked cookies cooling
  4. Meanwhile, make the icing by whipping the egg white. At a certain point the egg white will turn foamy: now gradually add the sugar, sifted beforehand, while you keep whipping. Finally, add a few drops of lemon juice as well.
    Gingerbread Cookies, step 4: whipping the egg white and sugar for the royal icing
  5. Divide the icing equally between two small bowls. Add the black food coloring to one of the bowls and stir well until it is fully blended into the mixture. Then spoon the two mixtures into two disposable piping bags and let them rest in the fridge until you’re ready to use them.
  6. When the cookies have cooled completely, take the disposable piping bag and snip a very small hole in it, then decorate the cookies by piping little gingerbread men on them. Wait until the icing has hardened completely, then serve the Gingerbread Cookies. Finally, remember to download our App with exclusive content and fewer ads!

Variations and Alternatives

If you don’t like the flavor of one (or more) of the spices used, you can leave it out. If you like, you can also make Royal Icing in several colors to create different decorations on your Gingerbread Cookies. A fun alternative is to make a small hole in the head or hand of each Gingerbread Man and thread a ribbon through it to hang them on the Christmas tree.

Tips

Molasses is now fairly easy to find even in Italy: you’ll find it in well-stocked supermarkets (usually in the international foods aisle), in organic food stores, or you can buy it online. If you really can’t find it, you can replace it with the same amount of Honey, but of course your Gingerbread Cookies will have a different flavor.

Storage

You can keep the Gingerbread Cookies in a tin or a cookie jar for a few days.

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