Gingerbread cookies: cooking recipes

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

If you've ever tasted real gingerbread cookies, you probably haven't forgotten its taste. Spicy and fragrant pastries are especially relevant on the eve of the New Year and Christmas. In our article, we want to bring the best gingerbread recipes.

History of gingerbread

The history of cookies goes back to England. There is even a legend that tells that English monks were the first to put ginger in cookies. Around the eleventh century, the monk Patrick kneaded the dough in a wooden bowl and generously added spices that were brought from the crusade by his brother. And he made the pastry itself in the form of angels and figurines of saints. Soon all the inhabitants of the monastery were enjoying delicious cookies. The abbot especially liked the pastries, who asked Patrick to make the same delicacy for Christmas. At that time, Christmas trees were decorated with cookies. But the pastries were not as beautiful as they are now, and had very simple forms. Modern gingerbread cookies sometimes turn into a real work of confectioners.

Much later, in the nineteenth century, there was a tradition of making real gingerbreadmasterpieces. Cooks have learned how to create entire towns and houses from cookies.

In European countries, gingerbread is a symbol of Christmas. Often it is made in the form of religious symbols or all kinds of figurines. Christmas trees are decorated with such gingerbread. The most popular cookie won in Germany. The city of Nuremberg is even called the capital of gingerbread. Here gingerbreads are turned into works of art.

Classic Gingerbread Recipe

There is a wide range of options for making spicy pastries. All of them are good in their own way. But I want to start talking about gingerbread cookies with a classic recipe.

Ingredients:

• sugar (three tablespoons),
• two tbsp. l. ginger, cinnamon and sugar,
• a pinch of coriander and nutmeg,
• egg,
• ch. l. soda,
• flour (325 g).

For frosting:

protein and powdered sugar (175 g)

Mix spices, sugar and honey in a saucepan. We send the container to the stove and, on the slowest fire, gradually melt until a homogeneous mass is obtained.

Next, add soda to raise the mixture, and then oil. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let the contents cool down. Then add the egg and mix well. Now you can add flour to the mass and knead the dough. It should be infused for 15 minutes. Next, roll it into a layer and cut out all kinds of figures. Transfer them to a baking sheet lined with parchment. Gingerbread cookies are baked very quickly. Enough 10-12 minutes. You have to watch their preparation.not to overdry products.

How to decorate gingerbread cookies? Currently, decorating cookies is an integral part and has long passed into the category of art. The easiest way to decorate gingerbread cookies at home is to grease its surface with icing. She prepares very simply. In a deep plate, mix the protein and powdered sugar, and it is better to use powdered sugar. Sugar in this case is not very suitable. Using a mixer, beat the mass very well until an airy soft consistency is obtained. We transfer the resulting icing for gingerbread cookies into a pastry bag, with which we color the gingerbread cookies. On average, the mass on the surface dries out in 1.5-2 hours.

Baking without sugar

The following recipe for gingerbread cookies allows you to make pastries without sugar and butter. But despite this, it turns out incredibly tasty.

Ingredients:

• finely ground bran (45 g, oatmeal or wheat),
• one protein,
• cottage cheese (230 g),
• whole grain flour (three tablespoons),
• ground ginger (two tsp),
• 1 tsp cocoa,
• the same amount of ground cinnamon, cloves and baking powder,
• a pinch of cardamom, nutmeg and s alt each.

Using a mixer in a container, mix the protein of one egg and cottage cheese. We add all the spices there. We introduce bran into the mass. And then gradually add flour and knead the dough with your hands. The finished mass is wrapped in cling film andput in the freezer for an hour. Next, roll out a layer of dough and cut out blanks using gingerbread cookie cutters. We prepare a baking sheet, cover it with parchment, and lay the gingerbread cookies on top. We cook the liver at 180 degrees. The baking process takes up to ten minutes.

Gingerbread cookies

Delicious gingerbread cookies should only be made with fresh ginger.

Ingredients:

• 1 glass of sugar,
• two cups of flour,
• egg,
• butter (120 g),
• two ginger roots,
• carnation (five inflorescences),
• 1 tsp each baking powder and cinnamon.

Fresh ginger roots are peeled and chopped on a grater. Since we are preparing gingerbread cookies with cinnamon, it is better to grind the spices yourself in a mortar. Mix the cloves and cinnamon, then grind thoroughly.

In a deep bowl, mix baking powder and flour, add chopped ginger, a mixture of spices. In a clean container, beat sugar with soft butter until a white homogeneous consistency is obtained, then add the egg. Pour the dry mixture into the resulting mass and knead the dough for gingerbread cookies with your hands. After we put it on a table sprinkled with flour, and roll it into a layer. Cut out blanks with molds. Top them with chopped almonds or sugar. Grease a baking sheet with oil, put cookies on it and bake in a hot oven. As you can see, cinnamon gingerbread cookies are easy to make.

Chocolate Cookies

Offeralso make simple gingerbread cookies with chocolate. Its taste is no less interesting than the classic version of baking.

Ingredients:

• sugar (210 g),
• butter (115 g),
• 4 eggs,
• ginger (85 g),
• vanilla,
• 1 tsp soda,
• raisins (215 g),
• dark chocolate (420 g).

For cooking, we need softened butter. It must be beaten with sugar. Also add vanilla. Gradually add one egg at a time without stopping beating. Peel and grind fresh ginger with a blender. After the ginger mass is added to the egg-butter mixture. In a separate bowl, mix baking soda and flour. Add them to other products and knead the dough. Next we need chocolate. Cut it into small pieces or rub it on a grater, and then mix it into the dough. Sprinkle the work surface with flour, put the dough on it and knead thoroughly with your hands. After we roll it into a cake and cut out blanks from it. We shift them to the prepared baking sheet and send to bake.

Almond cookies

At home, gingerbread cookies can also be made with almonds, which add a special flavor to pastries.

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp s alt,
• the same amount of baking powder,
• flour (270 g),
• sugar (130 g),
• butter (packaging),
• vanilla sugar (2 tsp),
• 2 eggs,
• vegetable oil,
• almonds (45 g),
• 1 tsp gingerground,
• 1 tbsp l. milk.

The recipe for gingerbread cookies with almonds is quite simple. Mix sugar and eggs and beat, then add butter. We continue to beat the mass. Gradually add ground ginger, almonds and vanilla. Then add flour and knead the dough. It must be kneaded until it becomes elastic. Next, we pack it in a bag and place it for 45 minutes in a cool place, for example, in a refrigerator. After the time has passed, we take out the dough and roll it into a layer. Cut out with molds. Grease each cookie on top with a mixture of milk and yolk. Thanks to this mass, the surface of the gingerbread will be smooth and shiny. Next, bake the cookies in the oven on a baking sheet, previously greased with cookies. The gingerbread is ready when it turns golden.

Gingerbread Icing

Gingerbread cookies are usually decorated with icing. There are a variety of options for its preparation. We will list just a few of them.

Ingredients:

• one protein,
• water (two tablespoons),
• lemon juice (tbsp),
• a glass of powdered sugar.

Mix all the ingredients in one container and beat with a mixer or immersion blender. We do not stop the process until the mass thickens. If you understand that the icing is too liquid, then you can safely add more powdered sugar. It is believed that thick glaze is much more convenient to draw patterns. Since an excessively liquid mass will simplyspread.

Protein free frosting

Good frosting can be made without protein. It seems surprising, but there is such a recipe. Moreover, the quality of the finished mass is no worse than other options.

Ingredients:

• powdered sugar (175 g),
• st. l. water,
• ch. l. any citrus juice.

Mix all the ingredients, then grind until smooth. Beat the mass until the sugar drop stops spreading on the surface of the plate. This glaze is ready to be used to draw patterns.

Custard glaze

The custard glaze is very tasty. Its preparation is quite simple. Bring 50 grams of water to a boil in a saucepan. After we reduce the heat and gradually pour in 300 grams of powdered sugar. We constantly stir the mass, then pour a teaspoon of natural juice of one lemon into it. Boil the icing for five minutes.

Food coloring can be used to prepare the mass for drawing. To apply patterns, a pastry bag with nozzles is required. By the way, you need to draw on cookies quickly enough, because the icing quickly hardens. There are a lot of pattern options.

Ready-made gingerbread must dry for ten hours so that the mass is completely frozen. After that, cookies can be packed into storage boxes. If you want to hang gingerbread cookies on a Christmas tree, then before baking them, be sure to makeblanking a hole using a straw for cocktails.

Recommendations for choosing glaze products

Real professionals who know the secrets of making gingerbread cookies believe that baking them is much easier than painting them. Private pastry shops offering handmade gingerbread to customers turn their creations into real works of art. But at home, you can try to create your own masterpiece.

We have already given several recipes for making icing for cookies. However, I would like to add that the mass for drawing can be prepared not only from natural egg white, but also from dry. By the way, dry protein is more convenient to use, it gives the glaze an incredibly beautiful white color. You can buy it on sites that specialize in the nutrition of athletes. The only thing worth knowing is that protein is packaged in large packages. It is also used by culinary specialists for the preparation of meringues, meringues, marshmallows and other sweet masterpieces. A very important component for the preparation of glaze is powder. It should have a very fine grind. You can buy it in the store or in confectionery online stores. These sites sell corn starch powder. This option is even more preferable, because on its basis the icing is much better.

Gingerbread decor

Coloring the finished gingerbread is the fun part. Children must be involved in the process. This will help create a special holiday atmosphere. In addition, coloring cookies on the eve of the holidays canbecome a true family tradition. You can involve children in the process of developing pattern options. They must first be brought to life on paper, and then try to reproduce on the surface of the cookies.

It is good to use white and blue icing as a New Year's scale. To obtain a colored mass, you can use natural food or gel dyes. Usually, cooks prepare a more liquid filling, which covers the entire surface of the cookies. And then, on top of the dried mass, patterns are drawn with glaze of a different color.