How to Bake Gingerbread Cookies
Makes: 6 dozen cookies
Preparation time: 40 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins
Ingredients needed to make gingerbread cookies:
- 4 cups + ½ cup all purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp ground allspice
- 1 tbsp ground dry ginger
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp kosher salt
Wet ingredients:
- ½ cup dark molasses
- 2 eggs
- Juice of a lemon
The foundation:
- Zest of an orange
- 1 2/3 cups sugar
- 1 ½ sticks salted butter, softened
For the frosting:
- Zest of a orange, finely grated
- ½ tsp orange liqueur
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ¼ tsp light corn syrup
- 2 tbsp fresh orange juice
Cooking instructions for gingerbread cookies:
- Add sugar, butter and the orange zest into the bowl of an electric mixer, fit it with the paddle attachment and beat them together for about 5-8 minutes, into a smooth mixture.
- Stir in the baking powder and soda, salt, cloves, cinnamon, allspice, dry ginger and nutmeg powder into 4 cups of flour and sift them into a medium sized mixing bowl; set aside until required.
- Whisk the eggs briefly with a hand mixer, stir in the molasses as well as the lemon juice and whisk them further until the molasses dissolves.
- Warm up your oven to 350 degrees F.
- Meanwhile, once the butter is creamed, fold in the dry mixture, followed by the egg mixture and beat them at lower speed until properly blended into a sticky dough.
- Split the dough into two equal portions and place one part between a pair of wax paper sheets.
- Press it firmly and leave in the fridge to chill for about 20 minutes.
- Follow the same procedure with the other half of the dough.
- Dust rest of the flour on your working surface as well as the rolling pin and roll the first portion of the dough into a round circle of about ½’’ in thickness.
- Carve out different shapes using floured cookie cutters and arrange them on a pre-greased baking sheet using a metal spatula.
- Make rest of the cookies similarly with other portion of the dough and arrange them on a 2nd baking sheet; avoid overcrowding and leave space for the cookies to expand while being baked.
- Bake the cookies for about 8-10 minutes or until their edges turn brown.
- Remove from oven and allow them to cool while you prepare the frosting.
- To make the frosting, throw in all its ingrediensts into a bowl and whisk them together until mixed thoroughly.
- Spoon it into piping bag, fitted with a small tip and pipe out patterns on the cookies.
- Serve and have fun this holiday!
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
