A wonderfully festive spiced cookie. The tradition of baking Christmas gingerbread cookies comes to us from Europe, where the gingerbread man is a symbol of Christmas. Decorating the cookies with icing is a perfect activity to do with kids — they'll love getting creative with it.
The cookies come out crispy with a bold, warm spice flavor. Even though there are quite a few spices, they don't taste sharp or hot — instead, they have a pleasant, mild, spiced finish. Strangely, most gingerbread cookie recipes I've come across don't include honey, which I think is a mistake — honey is truly essential here. It helps keep the cookies fresh for a long time without going stale, and it pairs beautifully with the spices, so I strongly recommend including it. As for the spices — ginger is a must, but you can skip the cloves if you're not a fan, though they do complement the overall flavor perfectly. You can also add a pinch of ground allspice. I absolutely loved how these turned out — they were gone long before Christmas even arrived :-)
All in all, I got 70 cookies (enough for three and a half baking sheets).
Ingredients:
- 250 g flour
- 100 g butter
- 100 g sugar
- 50 g honey
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp cloves
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- For decorating:
- 1 egg white
- 150 g powdered sugar
- colored sprinkles (optional)
How to cook gingerbread cookies
If the honey is thick, melt it and let it cool (I melted mine in the microwave). Add the honey and stir to combine.
Add the ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and baking powder to the flour and stir to combine. Gradually add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients, stirring with a spoon each time. Add a little more flour if needed, but don't make the dough too stiff — 250 g of flour was just right for me. The spices will give the dough a nice dark color.
Shape the dough into a ball and refrigerate for one hour (the dough needs to be well chilled so it's easier to roll out).
Flour your work surface (you can also lay down a sheet of parchment paper for convenience). Take out about a third of the dough (return the rest to the refrigerator). Flour your rolling pin and roll the dough out thin — about 2–3 mm thick. For crispy cookies, it's important to roll the dough thin, since the baking powder will cause them to puff up slightly. Cut out cookies using cookie cutters. If you don't have cutters, you can cut out paper templates (a Christmas tree, a star, etc.), place them on the dough, and trace around them with a knife — though this is more work. In a pinch, you can simply use an upside-down glass to cut out circles.
Carefully transfer the cutouts to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper using a spatula. Leave some space between them. Gather the scraps, roll them out again, cut out more shapes, and repeat. If the dough starts sticking to the rolling pin or work surface, pop it back in the refrigerator and grab the next portion. Remember to flour the surface and rolling pin regularly.
If you plan to hang the cookies on the Christmas tree, poke a hole in each cutout before baking (a straw works great for this). I did this with some of them and left the rest whole.
Bake in an oven preheated to 350°F (180°C) for about 5–10 minutes (I baked mine for exactly 9 minutes).
Let the finished cookies cool, then transfer them to a plate. I ended up with 70 cookies in total (the photo shows about half of them).
Make the icing. Wash the egg thoroughly with soap, dry it, and separate the egg white from the yolk. Lightly beat the egg white, then gradually sift in the powdered sugar, continuing to beat as you go.
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