Christmas is such a busy time of the year, my recipes are scattered across old notebooks, cloud archives, and stained index cards that are tucked into cookbooks that only I can find. What a mess! But Christmas Gingerbread still happens year after year, regardless of the chaos. I make cookies and gingerbread houses with this recipe and have used it for over 30 years. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do…it has served me well.
Christmas Gingerbread is an annual tradition!
If you want to make Christmas Gingerbread cookies, then try making one batch and see how you like it. Although I say that this recipe makes twelve portions, it really depends how big your cookies cutters are. I like making gingerbread people, bears, hearts and stars, but I also have a set of animal cracker sized cookie cutters. I can make hundreds of tiny cookies with just one batch of dough!
Christmas Snow Icing is essential also
Of course, if you want to ice your Christmas Gingerbread cookies, you will need a recipe for Christmas Snow Icing, which is a simple royal icing that I use annually as well. Nothing fancy, but it is the essential recipe for assembling your gingerbread house or decorating your cookies. Once the Christmas Snow Icing is made, you will need to adjust the amount of water needed depending on the task at hand: thicker icing for putting together walls and roofs, or thinner icing for piping delicate decorations on your cookies and houses. It will take you several years to master the correct texture, and for me that is an annual challenge!
Making a gingerbread house does take skill, and the process is too long for me to explain in this simple recipe for Christmas Gingerbread. Nonetheless, it all starts with this recipe, so its good to know where I can find it next year!
Christmas Gingerbread
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 12
- Total Time: 22 minutes
- Yield: 12 servings 1x
Ingredients
3½ cups all-purpose flour (437g)
¼ tsp salt (1g)
1½ tbsp. ground ginger (3g)
1 tsp ground cloves (2g)
1 stick butter, softened (115g)
¾ cup brown sugar, firmly packed (150g)
1 egg
¾ cup molasses (180ml)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C). Combine flour, salt, ginger and cloves in a large bowl, stir to combine well and set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine butter, brown sugar, egg and molasses and mix using a slow speed until fluffy. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and continue to mix until well combined.
Gather the dough into a ball. Cut a piece of parchment paper, place it on a flat surface and dust the parchment liberally with flour. Also, flour your rolling pin well to prevent sticking. Roll out the dough onto the parchment paper until the dough is ¼” thick (.6cm). Cut the gingerbread into the desired shape, and bake until golden, about 12 minutes.
Note: Other gingerbread recipes require you to chill the dough in advance. In my experience, room temperature dough gives smoother results and more delicate cookies.
Also, it is easier to roll the dough out onto parchment paper or greased sheets of aluminum foil. Place baked gingerbread on cooling racks immediately after removing them from the oven and allow to cool COMPLETELY before using for gingerbread house making.
This is the most clever gingerbread house I think I have seen.
thank you so much Chris!!
MG