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Spicy Gingerbread Cookies

This is my go-to gingerbread recipe, extra spicy and rich on the flavour!! They hold their shape perfectly for cut-outs but are still soft and delicious. Not too sweet so you can definitely top with royal icing without being cloyingly sweet. I like it heavy on molasses but if you want a lighter molasses flavour you can just adjust the ration of syrup to molasses, just  be sure the total amount adds up to 2/3 cup. Makes about 50 3″ cookies, you can freeze the dough for a couple months and just take out as needed!

 

[ingredients title=”Ingredients”]

  • 2/3 cup (145g) unsalted butter
  • 3/4 cup (150g) packed brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup molasses
  • 1/3 cup golden syrup
  • 1 large egg, at room temperature
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 and 1/2 cups (440g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 Tbsp ground fresh ginger
  •  1 tsp ground ginger powder
  • 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground cardamom
  • 1/2 tsp ground allspice
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/2 tsp ground black pepper

[/ingredients]

[directions title=”Directions”]

  1. Beat the butter for 1 minute on medium speed in a stand mixer until completely smooth and creamy. Add the brown sugar, syrup and molasses and beat on medium high speed until combined and creamy.
  2. Next, beat in egg and vanilla on high  for 2 full minutes. I add fresh ginger here and mix for a few more seconds.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, dry spices. On low speed, slowly add the dry to the wet until combined. The cookie dough will be quite thick and slightly sticky. Divide dough in half and place each onto a large piece of plastic wrap and pat down into a flat disc so it will eventually thaw evenly. Chill discs for at least 3 hours, you have to chill for it to be workable. you can also freeze dough for a couple months.
  4. Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 2-3 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
  5. Remove 1 disc of chilled cookie dough from the refrigerator. Generously flour surface, as well as your hands and the rolling pin. You can continually flour to ensure it doesn’t stick, a tip for easy cleanup is to roll between sheets of parchment paper. Roll out disc until 1/4-inch thick, thinner for a crisper cookie. Cut into shapes. Place shapes 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets. Re-roll dough scraps until all the dough is shaped.
  6. Bake cookies for about 9-10 minutes.
  7. Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet. Transfer to cooling rack to cool completely. Once completely cool, you can decorate with royal icing.

[/directions]

Tips for decorating?

We use tiny plastic bags, not piping bags! It’s more affordable and you can cut the tiniest holes to get the perfect size lines for decorating.

Start simple! Connect the points of the snowflake to one another, and then decorated with dots and more lines

Keep a wet paper towel on hand to wipe the tip of the bag and keep the icing flowing

You can freeze royal icing! It will warm-up for decorating in no time if you have a few weeks of icing to do for the season

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