Over the years I have tried many, like many, gingerbread recipes and none of them turned out the way I liked. Either the gingerbread expanded too much while being in the oven and wasn’t recognizable anymore, or the dough turned into a brick that would scare any dentist.
Therefore I created my own gingerbread from scratch recipe. These cookies are slightly soft but still crisp. The iconic gingerbread flavour comes from a spice mix of cinnamon, ginger, cloves and piment. The molasses adds a deeper, slightly caramelized taste and gives the dough its dark brown colour.
I also included my icing recipe, which does set after a few hours. You can speed it up by putting it in the fridge.
I played around with a few gingerbread designs, the original classic one, a Stormtrooper one, and a Rudolph version, which is basically an upside-down gingerbread man. Watch the video at 3:21 to see how I have done it!
Have a great time making these cookies. Merry Christmas everyone!
Gingerbread Man from Scratch
Adjust servings here:
Equipment
- 2 Mixing bowl
- Rolling Pin or wine bottle
- gingerbread cookie cutter
- baking paper aka parchment paper
- baking tray
- piping bag
- plastic wrap
Ingredients
DOUGH
- 500 grams flour all purpose
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp all spice aka piment
- 150 grams brown sugar
- 150 grams butter softened
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 200 grams molasses
ICING
- 2 eggs egg white
- 300 grams powdered sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp lemon juice
Instructions
DOUGH
- Take a big bowl (bowl 1) and add a sieve on top. Add all the dry ingredients; flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cloves, all spice and salt. Sieve all ingredients.
- Use another bowl (bowl 2) and add the sugar and butter. Use a whisk or mixer to mix the ingredients. Add the egg, vanilla extract and molasses. Mix until all ingredients are combined.
- Add the wet ingredients (bowl 2) to the dry ingredients (bowl 1) and mix until it become a dough ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and keep in the fridge for 3 hours.
- 3 hours later; pre-heat the oven to 175 C or 350 F
- Add flour to the surface and use a rolling pin to roll the dough flat. Use your preferred cookie cutter to cut out the dough.
- Add all your creations to a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake in over for 13-14 minutes on 175 C or 350 F. Let the cookies cool down for 20 minutes.
ICING
- Add egg whites to a mixing bowl. Add lemon juice and vanilla extract and use a whisk or mixer to blend ingredients.
- Sieve the powdered sugar and add bit by bit the sugar to the egg whites. Mix it all together.
- Add the icing to a piping bag.
- Decorate the cookies the way you like! Merry Xmas! <3
Notes
Enjoy!
