Gingerbread Cookies

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I had a lovely day with my family, eating lots and lots of food – including these gingerbread cookies, which turned out to be a huge success. Definitely one to remember for next year!

I hadn’t expected to make quite as many cookies as I did – I’m pretty sure there were about 120 of them! Of course, they were quite small and not very thick, so that may have something to do with it. If I had actual gingerbread man cookie cutters there might not have been this many. Not that I’m complaining! They turned out to be delicious, and I had a lot of fun making them, especially once I got the hang of piping the icing.

This week is technically a week off, at least from my internship, but I’ll probably spend most of it working on my very last university project/assignment/thingy. January will be the last month of my internship and then I’m done with university… Out into the ‘real’ world I go – terrifying yet exciting! I do think I’ll have much more time to blog again, which is something I’m really looking forward to.

But first things first; let’s get to the recipe for these yummy cookies!

You’ll need… (for an insane amount of cookies)

• 170 g unsalted butter
• 160 g dark brown sugar
• 250 g molasses (for the Dutchies: keukenstroop will do – that’s what I used)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2½ teaspoon ground ginger
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 egg (medium)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 430 g plain flour

• cookie glaze + a way to pipe it (I used store-bought, which came with a nozzle, but you can make it yourself; just Google cookie icing and pick a recipe that includes corn syrup)
• optionally: sprinkles

• baking parchment
• baking tray (preferably two)
• rolling pin (a bottle of wine is fine too)
• cookie cutters
• and an oven, of course! These cookies need to be baked at 175 °C (don’t forget to preheat your oven!)

So, let’s get baking!

1 Melt butter, brown sugar, molasses, salt and spices Put the butter, dark brown sugar, molasses, salt, ginger, cinnamon and cloves into a saucepan and heat it all on the stove. Keep stirring and take it off the heat once the butter has fully melted an everything is nicely combined.

2 Let mixture cool down and add egg Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl and let it cool down a few minutes until it is lukewarm. Then, add the egg and mix it through.

3 Add flour, baking powder and baking soda Now, add the flour, baking powder and baking soda and mix it through until it starts to form a nice (yet wet) dough. I used my fancy new stand mixer for this, but you can also use a handheld whisk with hand mixer or a regular old (wooden) spoon.

4 Divide dough in 3 or 4 balls and wrap them in cling film It isn’t absolutely necessary to divide the dough into multiple balls, but since you’ll probably bake these cookies in multiple batches, it’s easier to roll out one part of the dough at the time and leave the rest nice and cool in the fridge. I used two balls, but three or four would be even more useful.

5 Let dough cool in fridge for at least 2 hours This is a crucial step which you shouldn’t skip, because at this point your dough is still much too wet to roll out (this is due to still slightly warm butter and molasses). Put the balls of dough in the fridge and let them rest there for at least two hours. I let mine cool over night, which is even better for the firmness and the taste, but two hours is fine as well.

6 Roll out dough and cut cookies Flour your surface and your rolling pin. When your dough has cooled down enough, take one of the balls out of the fridge and roll it out to half a centimeter in thickness (or thicker if you want slightly more chewy cookies). Make sure your dough doesn’t stick to the surface or the rolling pin by moving it around and flipping it over (and using enough flour!).

7 Bake cookies and repeat process Place your cut out cookies on a baking tray lined with parchment and put the tray in your preheated oven. Bake the cookies for 8 to 11 minutes (until they’re slightly browned around the edges). Take them out of the oven and transfer them from the tray to a cooling rack after a few minutes. Repeat this process of rolling out and baking until all of your dough is gone. I had about six or seven batches, but my oven isn’t that big, so you might be done sooner.

8 Decorate! Once your cookies have cooled down completely, it’s time to decorate! I used store-bought cookie icing, but you can make it yourself, too. You’ll probably want a glaze that uses corn syrup, because that makes sure the glaze dries hard.

And there you have it! Your own delicious gingerbread cookies – enjoy!