Gingerbread cookies were prepared for all holidays and made in different shapes and sizes. They owe their name to spices that have long been part of the recipe. Gingerbread dough, the recipe of which originally included honey and molasses, has undergone some changes today. The fact is that sugar has become much more affordable than honey, and products began to be made on it. Below we will consider different test options.
Gingerbread Dough: A Recipe From the Ages
As mentioned above, gingerbread cookies are one of the oldest sweets in Russia. According to some reports, they were baked back in the 10th century. When modern housewives make gingerbread dough, the recipe, of course, differs from that of the old Russian sweets. Nevertheless, three types of dough can be distinguished - honey, sugar and sugar-honey. It includes both sugar and honey. You can make dough in two different ways. With a simplified version, the products are stale faster. The second option takes longer, but the gingerbread cookies stay fresh and soft longer. Below we will consider both methods.
Choux pastry
This is the most difficult option, which can be used by the hostess who decided to cook gingerbread dough. This recipe is easy to learn and delight in the future with a family of delicious gingerbread cookies.
- So, you need to take 750 g of flour, 1 cup of sugar, 60 g of honey, 100 g of oil, 1 egg, 0.5 teaspoon of soda, 0.5 tsp. spices to taste, 60 ml of water. Subject to all proportions, approximately 1 kg of dough is obtained.
As you can see, the recipe for gingerbread dough is not as complicated as it might seem at first glance. So, in order to make a custard dough, put honey, sugar, water in a saucepan and heat, without boiling. Then it is recommended to add half the flour and spices to the mixture. Stir the workpiece for the product is best with a wooden spatula. Moreover, if you leave the flour in syrup without stirring at least for a couple of minutes, then lumps will appear in the test, which will be difficult to get rid of. Cool the resulting mass to room temperature, and then add the rest of the flour, eggs and baking powder. Ready dough should be soft. To make a tasty dish, you need to start cutting the dough right away, otherwise the finished gingerbread cookies will be of poor quality. This gingerbread recipe is the closest to the original antique version.
A simple test option
Housewives who do not want to spend a lot of time preparing the dough will do the following recipe. In a pan, put honey, add butter, alternated with sugar, spices and knead all the ingredients for a couple of minutes. Then introduce flour (preferably sifted) and soda and knead the dough. If crystals form in honey, then it must be heated, but in no case bring to a boil. He will lose aroma from this, which means that the product will not be so tasty. Gingerbread honey should be at room temperature. What consistency should be a gingerbread dough - a recipe with a photo will demonstrate only approximately. You need to be able to determine this by touch.
Making a Christmas treat
The recipe for the gingerbread house differs from the usual one in that here it should be more fragrant and festive. There are many options, and each housewife can choose the one that she will like. For example, a wonderful gingerbread dough (a recipe from Gerda) is obtained if all proportions are exactly observed.
- So, we need: 0.5 kg of honey, 0.3 kg of butter and 0.3 kg of cane sugar, 50-100 g of cocoa (depending on whether you want to make the house chocolate or not). You will also need 3 tablespoons of rum, a little baking powder, a pinch of two cinnamon, a pinch of ground cardamom, a little ground clove, a pinch of ground ginger and a little freshly grated root. From spices, it is also recommended to add a pinch of ground anise seeds, a little star anise (ground), ground nutmeg, vanilla, zest of one orange and lemon. This proportion will need a little more than 1 kg of flour.
Of course, every housewife gets a unique gingerbread dough. Skripkin’s recipe, for example, can be slightly modernized by removing such a large number of spices. The test recipe with the changes below.
- We need: 500 grams of honey, 300 grams of sugar, 300 grams of butter, 50 grams of cocoa, zest of one lemon, zest of orange, vanilla to taste.
Thus, it is clear that the gingerbread dough (recipe) and products from it do not require high cooking skills and even a novice hostess can afford.
Making gingerbread dough: a cookie recipe
Many people know gingerbread men only as characters in the cartoon "Shrek". Meanwhile, these are traditional cookies for Catholic Christmas, which you can please children on any other day.
So, how to cook this gingerbread dough? See the recipe below.
We will need:
- 3 eggs.
- 1.5 cups molasses.
- 6 cups sifted flour.
- Approximately 300 g of margarine.
- 250 g of sugar.
- 2 tablespoons of cocoa or instant coffee.
- 4 tablespoons of soda, quenched in vinegar.
- A little ground ginger.
- A pinch of ground cinnamon.
- A pinch of clove powder.
How to make cookies themselves?
For cookies, we need first a pattern and, of course, a gingerbread dough. The recipe was given above, but we will duplicate it again. Thanks to the template, the little men will turn out the same and beautiful. Gingerbread dough and products made of it are distinguished by the fact that they hold their shape perfectly, and any figures can be made from them. The process of preparing the dough itself is simple. Mix oil, spices, soda and salt in a saucepan, and then add sugar and honey.
You can knead everything with a spoon, or you can beat with a mixer. Dissolve cocoa in a couple of spoons of boiling water, allow to cool to room temperature and introduce into the dough simultaneously with eggs. After that add 3.5 cups of flour, continuing to whip the mass with a mixer. Add the flour that remains and knead the dough with your hands. It should not be too dense to roll easily. Put the finished product in the refrigerator for at least 5-6 hours, having previously wrapped it in cling film. After that, take out the dough and put it on the board, rolling into a thin layer. So that it does not stick, sprinkle flour with a rolling pin. However, flour must be handled more carefully so as not to spoil the taste of cookies. From rolled dough, cut out a little tin of little people and bake until cooked. After that you can separately make the icing and decorate the finished cookies.
Variations in the recipe
Some components can be replaced. For example, take vegetable oil instead of butter, and add baking powder instead of soda. But ginger should be present anyway. It is he who gives the liver a unique taste that is loved by both adults and children around the world. If you do not have molds, you can make a template yourself from thick paper or cardboard.
Not every housewife in the kitchen has a pastry syringe. But you should not be upset, since it can be replaced by the so-called confectionery bag. To do this, just cut off the corner at the plastic bag, and the glaze is already squeezed out of it.
Colored glaze is obtained by adding food coloring to it. If the cookies are large, then multi-colored buttons can be laid out from sweets.
Gingerbread House # 2: Ideas for Inspiration
Gingerbread dough and products made of it are an excellent gift option for your family and friends for any occasion. Below we will consider the technology for making a gingerbread house. The recipe for the gingerbread house is not very different from the simple gingerbread recipe.
Heat honey, margarine and sugar. Beat with a whisk, adding cocoa, until all the lumps disappear. The mass should be uniform and should not boil.
Mix flour with spices and baking powder. Optionally, add the zest of orange.
Into the honey preheated mass, introduce in two doses eggs and rum or cognac.
Add flour and spices to the honey mixture and knead the dough thoroughly. It should not flow. Kneading takes an average of 15-20 minutes. In this case, do not try to mix all the flour at once. The dough will gradually cool. It must be put in the refrigerator, previously wrapped in cling film. Allow the dough to rest for at least 5 hours.
"Building" a sweet house
Make a template for the parts of the house - walls, roof and other figures that you consider necessary. Roll out the dough and cut out the details of the house. Bake for 20-25 minutes until cooked.
The foundation of the future house should be gingerbread. It is to him that walls are attached.
Windows are made of marmalade or caramel. True, in conditions of high humidity, candy caramel is likely to melt. Therefore, it is best to take sweets without filling or marmalade slices.
Transparent caramel is not worth taking. It melts poorly, and if it melts, it still flows from the "windows" of the house, spoiling the entire product. If the house has high humidity, it’s not recommended to make caramel by ourselves - it will melt and flow anyway. And this means that the work will go down the drain. But in any case, the most important thing is a well-prepared gingerbread dough. The recipe (Pohlebkin offers slightly different proportions) suggests the dough is dense and non-sticky. This must be constantly remembered.
For the house you need to make icing, or icing. To do this, powdered sugar with proteins, lemon juice and starch is ground so that there are no bubbles. The finished mass is laid out in a pastry bag or in a milk bag with a cut corner. You can use a regular file for papers, it is quite dense, and it is convenient to work with it.
Gingerbread Cookies
We looked at several ways to make gingerbread dough. The recipe without honey is very popular at present, since honey is a rather expensive product. Below we consider an old gingerbread recipe without honey. They turn out to be somewhat unusual, but also very tasty. So, for the test we need:
- 300 g sifted flour (in principle, the recipe may also contain more. But then the dough will turn out very cool).
- 40 g of oil.
- 50 g of sugar.
- Cinnamon and cardamom to taste.
- 50 g of raisins.
- 1 egg
Mix sugar, cinnamon and cardamom.
Then we mix sugar with spices, flour and an egg with butter. The dough should turn out pretty dense, but not cool, otherwise the product will be harsh and quickly become stiff.
Put small balls of dough on a greased baking sheet. Alternatively, you can roll out the dough into small cakes and make them curly edges.
Bake for 15-20 minutes. However, if you make balls, they should be in the oven a little longer to bake completely.
If you want, cover the finished product with icing, sugar pearls and chocolate. If you strictly follow the recipe, they will turn out to be almost unsweetened. Therefore, chocolate and icing are simply necessary. You can change the amount of sugar, proportionally increasing the number of other components.