Gingerbread cookies are the absolute pinacle of holiday cookies. They are warm, soft, chewy, and perfect for devouring. We like ours a little more spiced than most, and we shoot for as soft as possible. These aren't those thin cripsy ones, these are my ideal gingerbread cookies. As a heads up, this dough does need to rest in the fridge overnight, so plan accordingly!
Recipe - Makes 2-3 dozen
1 cup unsalted butter softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup molasses
1 large egg
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
5 Cups All purpose flour
2 tbsp Meringue powder
3 cups Powdered sugar
5 tbsp water
Start by creaming 2 sticks of butter with 1 cup of sugar. This will take 5-10 minutes, so strap in. In a large bowl for dry ingredients, sift 5 cups of flour. To that add 1 and a half teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon of salt, 2 tsp ground ginger, 2 tsp ground cinnamon, ½ tsp clove, and 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice. To the stand mixer bowl, crack in one egg, add in 2 tablespoons of white vinegar, and add 1 cup of molasses. The vinegar will help activate the baking soda to give our cookies more lift.
In small batches, add your sifted dry ingredients to the mixer. Scrape the sides and let this go on low. It’s probably a good idea to switch from the whisk to the paddle attachment. Once combined, this needs to chill in the fridge overnight, so separate the dough into manageable batches and store in the fridge.
The next day, set your oven to 350f and take your batches down to a workable size for rolling. It will be a little more challenging to roll out while fully cold, so give the dough a few good whacks with your rolling pin. Roll your dough on a floured surface to about a little over a quarter of an inch thick. Stamp these with your favorite decorative cutter, and bake at 350f for around 8-10 minutes. The molasses should do the heavy lifting to keep these moist. Any scraps can be rerolled together until all the dough has been used.
As per usual, let these cool on a wire rack while we make an icing. My family always made a faux royal icing using meringue powder instead of actual egg whites, so that’s what i'm doing here. To 3 cups of powdered sugar, add 2 tbsp of meringue powder. Slowly add close to 5 tbsp of water until the icing has come together into a pipeable liquid. The meringue powder will let this harden up nicely when cooled. You can keep the icing white, or add food coloring for fun decoration. I like the gel stuff here, because it's much more intense. You could easily skip this step though. My wife prefers them to be left plain, but I like the crunchy icing against the soft cookie. These are so fun to make, and even better to eat.
Cheers!
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