The perfect christmas tradition of making gingerbread cookies is complete with these spice loaded homemade gingerbread cookies recipe with tips and tricks to get them perfect. Template for your own gingerbread cookie houses included.
One day to Christmas and I finally have a gingerbread house cookie recipe for you. Ever since I started this blog I have on most christmases made gingerbread cookies. But I never got around posting a recipe. This time I have just about managed to post this recipe of gingerbread cookies.
These gingerbread cookies are bursting with spices and a subtle hint of orange zest in them. They are sturdy enough to be made into gingerbread houses but still have a slight soft chew in the center. While I love the grandiose vibe of a gingerbread house, I think these cookies in the shape of a house and decorated with royal icing are a great substitute for the house, and definitely not as much effort or planning that gingerbread houses generally requires. You can add a hole on the top and these gingerbread cookies would be lovely as edible ornaments for your trees, or to use to as gift tags, or even to put in place of napkin rings for your dinner table. If nothing else, just pick them and eat. No one is judging. Its christmas 🙂
GINGERBREAD HOUSE TEMPLATE
If you have a house shape cutter, go ahead use that. You could also use this dough to make gingerbread men, stars, trees, christmas ornaments and whatever your cute little christmas imagination thinks of. I made houses and trees. While I have one house cutter (which I only realised while I was typing this post), I wanted houses of different shapes and sizes, so I just made my own template.
I made the gingerbread house template in Microsoft word, and honestly if I can make it, so can you. I am uploading my template for the houses here but feel free to adjust sizes and shapes- or even add a chimney to your template to make it more fancy. I print the template on an A4 card stock so that it is a bit sturdier and stick parchment paper to the side that will be touching the cookie dough. That ways you are sure to be using a food safe template to cut your gingerbread shapes.
For the design with the royal icing, I was inspired by this pinterest vector image. And that’s what I went ahead for the houses. There is plenty of inspiration online, or if you are an arty crafty person I am sure you can think of one in your head.
This dough is sturdy enough to make gingerbread houses too. Hopefully next year I will have a proper tutorial for that as well.
SUBSTITUTES, TIPS and TRICKS
Here are some tips and tricks to make sure you get the perfect gingerbread house cookies.
- Molasses substitute: For the molasses, I actually used this easy substitute made from palm jaggery. I used this for my christmas cakes too, and it worked well here as well.
- Egg substitute:Â While personally I haven’t tried this recipe without eggs, you can easily use any of the traditional egg substitutes like flax/chia egg, or even cream to bind it all together. It should work. In case it doesn’t please let me know.
- Rest your dough before rolling out: I used to do this step always because most recipes say to do it, but only recently understood why. The primary reason to rest your cookie dough, is so that you give the flour time to hydrate and soak up the liquids in the dough. Cookie dough is generally dry and thick fats like eggs take time to be absorbed by the flour. This resting period helps in better flour hydration, yielding cookies that will bake and brown more evenly. For this gingerbread cookie dough a 1-2 hour rest in the fridge is sufficient, but for the chocolate chip cookies on the blog I prefer atleast a 24 hour rest period for a slighltly more complex flavor. If you have the time, these gingerbread cookies will definitely benefit from an overnight rest too.
- Rolling your dough: I always roll my dough out between two sheets of parchment paper. This way I do not need to add any additional flour to the dough. Also keeping to chop sticks on each side while you are rolling out, will help in the rolled out dough to have even thickness. This video where I am rolling the air dry clay explains it better how I use the chop sticks.
- Making windows: While I did not cut out any windows and made them with royal icing once the cookies were baked, in case you want to Tip No. 5 in this article, sounds quite helpful.
- Chill your dough once you have your cut out shapes ready: Chilling the dough allows for the fat (butter) in the cookies to chill and firm up. Cold fat will melt slower while baking, preventing the cookies from spreading too thin and losing its shape. So once I roll out the dough, I like to chill it again for about 30 minutes in the refrigerator. In colder seasons 30 minutes refrigeration is enough time, but if you are in a warmer climate you might need little more. The cutouts should be firm to touch before you start baking.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes:Â The biggest size of cookies (in my template) took no more than 10 minutes to bake, so keep an eye out. Depending on your oven you might need to move the tray once so that all cookies are baked evenly. DO NOTÂ lift the cookies from the tray as soon as you remove them from the oven. They will still be slightly soft. Let them cool a bit on the tray till you can easily lift them without breaking them. Then let cool completely on a wire rack before you ice them.
- To make ginger cookies crisp, you can leave out the baking soda. The main difference between soft and crispy ginger cookies has to do with this leavening agent. I like the centers to be a little soft, so add a bit of baking soda to it.
- Make ahead: The dough will stay good in the fridge for about 2 days wrapped in plastic wrap. Let it come to a pliable temperature before you roll it out. The dough can also be frozen for up to 3 months, thaw at room temperature before using. If the disc feels super stiff, just let it be on your counter for a bit until it’s more pliable.The cookies can be made up to 1 week in advance, cover tightly and store at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
- 3 cups (385 gms) all purpose flour/maida
- 2 tsp mixed spices ( I have a ground cake spice mix of cloves, all spice, cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon, star anise, but in case you do not then use ¼ tsp ground cloves, ¼ tsp all spice, a pinch nutmeg - you could also use garam masala but use only ½-1 tsp since that is generally stronger )
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tbsp ground ginger (I like a gingery taste, but if you would prefer it slightly milder then you could use 2 tsp ground ginger)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup molasses
- 85 gms brown sugar
- 125 gms butter, softened
- Zest of 1 small orange (optional)
- 1-2 tbsp milk (as requiredl)
- In a bowl whisk the dry ingredients- flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, spices.
- Cream the butter and sugar in another bowl till its light and fluffy, around 5 minutes.
- Add the egg, molasses, vanilla and the zest. Mix it thoroughly, scraping the sides.
- Add in the flour mix and fold everything together. If the mixture is too crumbly add 1-2 tbsp of milk. Start with 1 tbsp and add another if required. The mixture should be firm, but should also not crumble when rolling out.
- Divide the dough into two halves. Wrap in clingwrap or beeswax paper. Let the dough rest for 1-2 hours. If its too warm then you can let it rest in the refrigerator. In winters, I let the dough rest on the counter, as its cool enough outside too. That ways its the perfect temperature to roll the dough out as opposed to straight out of the fridge.
- Once ready to roll, take two long pieces of parchment paper. With the help of chopsticks on either side roll the dough out a uniform thickness. I roll it to ¼ inch thick.
- Place your template on the rolled out sheet. Using a small knife, carefully cut the dough into the gingerbread house template shapes. Place on a parchment lined baking tray. Chill the cut out shapes for another 30 minutes to chill the dough out. In winters you could directly bake them, but if I have time I like the added reassurance of a chilled dough especially when it comes to shaped cookies.
- Preheat oven to 180 C/ 350 F.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, or till edges are lightly browned. Depending on the thickness and size of your cookies, you might need to adjust the baking time.
- Remove from the oven and allow shapes to cool completely on the baking sheets, before transferring to a wire rack.
- Decorate as you like.
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Download your gingerbread house template here
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