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: 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: 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 NOT 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.
