Gingerbread Man Cookies
Gingerbread Man Cookies are the holiday season perfection. A very versatile recipe using the winter flavors is perfect to cut into any shape you desire. Make the dough and take out all your cookie cutters.
Servings: 4 dozen
Ingredients
- 180 gram unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup powdered jaggery firmly packed
- 1 cup honey
- 3½ cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 tbsp dry ginger powder saunth
- 1 tbsp cinnamon powder
- 1 tbsp all spice powder garam masala
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- a little flour for dusting
Instructions
- In a large bowl, put jaggery and soft butter and beat with an electric beater, till pale and creamy. Add the honey and beat till well mixed. Sieve together the flours, powdered ginger, cinnamon powder, all spice powder, baking powder and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl. Mix this in using the beater on low speed until the dough comes together somewhat.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly dusted work surface. Knead the cookie dough by hand till it is soft and smooth but not sticky. Do not add any flour while kneading, except for lightly dusting your work surface.
- Press the dough into a disc, wrap in cling film or place in ziploack bag and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. This makes the dough easier to roll and cut out shapes. You can keep this dough in the fridge for 2-3 days before making the cookies.
- When ready, knead the dough to make sure it is smooth. Lightly dust the work surface with flour and roll out the dough till just under ¼" thick. Keep dusting flour (with a light hand) while rolling out to make sure the dough doesn’t stick to the surface or rolling pin.
- Cut out shapes with cookie cutter of size an shape of your choice. If you want to use them as ornaments on the tree, then make hole in the desired place with a knitting needle or a tandoori stick before placing in the oven. Place the cut-out cookies on lightly greased baking sheets. You can place the prepared trays in freezer for 10 minutes before baking so that the cookies will hold shape. Bake at 180 °C for about 8 minutes or till the cookies turn a light brown in color.
- Take them out and let them cool on the sheets for about 3 to 5 minutes and then on racks. The cookies will seem a little soft but they will become crisp once they have cooled completely. Store them in airtight containers till ready to decorate.
Notes
- You can use multigrain flour in place of whole wheat flour.
- The number of cookies will depend upon the thickness and the size of cookie cutter.
- Decorate as you like or leave them undecorated.
- You may need re-cut the hole or any other cut, as it tends to slightly join while baking. So re-cut or re-pierce as soon as the cookie comes out of the oven.
- Refrigerating the cookie before baking really helps in holding the shape.
- For decorating I used melted dark chocolate and basic eggless royal icing. In future, I would prefer to go with white & dark melted chocolate for decoration.