Whether you're counting down the days to Christmas or simply indulging in a festive treat, these crisp, buttery gingerbread cookies are a fun way to celebrate cookie season. The high-yield dough is perfectly spiced, buttery, and easy to work with. Roll them thin to 1/8" thickness for a crisp texture.As I mentioned in the blog post, this dough as a little black pepper mixed in. It's subtle, and doesn't stand out. Rather, it underscores the zingy flavor of the ground ginger.Use your favorite cookie cutters for this recipe, such as gingerbread folk or Christmas tree motif cutters. Or use number cookies for an edible Advent calendar.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set this mixture aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar until the mixture is fluffy. Add the spices, salt, and pepper, followed by the eggs and molasses. Mix until well combined.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients on low speed until a cohesive dough forms. Divide the dough into thirds, and wrap each portion in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350F.
On a floured work surface, roll out the chilled dough to a thickness of 1/8 inch. Or, you may choose to roll the dough between sheets of parchment paper. Use number cookie cutter for Advent cookies, or use your favorite cookie cutters to cut out the desired shapes. Re-roll dough and repeat process for more cookies.
Transfer the cut-outs to parchment-lined baking sheets, and place them in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to firm up.
Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes, or until they are crisp but not overly browned. Keep a close eye on them as baking times may vary slightly depending on the size of your cookies.
Allow the cookies to cool on wire racks before decorating.
Decors
Knead the modeling chocolate well and roll out on a work surface or a large piece of parchment paper using a rolling pin. If the chocolate is sticky, dust your surface and rolling pin with a little powdered sugar.
Use the same cookie cutters you used to stamp dough shapes to stamp out shapes from the chocolate.
Brush a little water on a cooled cookie and top with a matching chocolate cut out. Repeat with remaining cookies.
Using a small kitchen-dedicated art brush, apply small beads of piping gel or corn syrup to the chocolate covering on the cookies. Top with holiday sprinkles. Allow cookies to stand until the sprinkles are well set, about 4 hours or overnight.
Package the cookies for gifting or for your own enjoyment each day up to December 25th.
Notes
If you'd rather go classic with royal icing, here's my favorite recipe made with meringue powder.
Royal Icing
4 cups confectioners’ sugar sifted3 tablespoons meringue powder1/4 cup warm water plus more for thinning1/2 teaspoon clear vanilla extractgreen gel food color
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, stir the confectioner’s sugar and meringue powder on low speed until combined. Add the water and beat on medium high speed until very stiff peaks form, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add water drops at a time if too thick. Add flavoring and beat on low until combined; tint with the green gel food color.
Flood Consistency: Stir drops of water into the icing until it is thinned but still has the consistency of a thick milkshake, this is called flood consistency. To make sure the consistency is correct, drag a spoon through the center of the icing in a straight line, creating an indentation. When the icing is of perfect flood consistency, the indentation should completely disappear in 10 seconds. If it disappears too quickly, then the icing is too thin and will not dry properly. The indentation should disappear as close to the 10 second mark as possible. It is much harder to thicken the icing after it has been thinned than to make thick icing thinner, so take your time and add water drops a few at a time.
Place a #2 round decorator piping tip into the bottom of a small piping bag; snip off plastic on the end of the piping bag. Fill piping bag with green icing and seal the open end with a rubber band.
Pipe an outline of icing around a cookie and then flood the inside of the outline. Use a toothpick to push royal icing into blank areas and gaps. Repeat with remaining cookies. Let stand until set, overnight.
Continue to decorate with piping gel and sprinkles as directed.
This recipe was adapted from a Martha Stewart Living Magazine recipe, circa 1997.