At all times in Russia, gingerbread enjoyed special love and respect. They were prepared for celebrations, given as gifts, as a token of love and respect. Today, gingerbread is not as popular as it was 100 years ago, but, meanwhile, their preparation is quite simple. But how can you surprise everyone with such a wonderful dessert!
Our ancestors started baking the first gingerbread in the 9th century from rye flour with berry juice and honey. However, it is known that even the ancient Romans and Egyptians liked to indulge in such delicacies - for the first time, honey cakes seasoned with spices were mentioned in written sources in 350 BC! And already in our era, the Belgians were the first to start baking gingerbread in the city of Dinant - today their recipes have been transformed into Lebkuchen Christmas gingerbread cookies, which are baked in Germany. In Russia, the technology for preparing this delicacy has become a little different. Gingerbread was originally baked with large quantity honey - up to 50% of total weight all ingredients, and called them "honey bread". Only from the 12th-13th century, when Indian and oriental spices appeared on sale, which began to be added to these products everywhere, they began to be called "gingerbread". Most often in Russia they prepared gingerbread with bitter orange peel, lemon, vanilla, mint, nutmeg, cumin, anise, ginger, and even black pepper and Italian dill!
Gingerbread is the flavor of the season. Bursting with ginger, cloves, and cinnamon, these richly flavored cookies are your home's perfume from the moment you start mixing the dough into the first tray you pull out of the oven, but gingerbread can be a little subtle. recipe or some of them can get heavy or worse, bland! We don't have that, so we created a cookie recipe gingerbread cookies, which is not only incredibly pleasant, but also easy to handle.
Starting from the cherished family recipe, a few words of wisdom from a gingerbread drink expert, and a few trays of cookies later, we're done with the recipe we're sharing now. So, get your frosting ready and round your gums, because this is the gingerbread cookie recipe to get you through the holiday season.
Gingerbread cookies were very fond of our ancestors - they were baked for the holidays, given to each other as a sign of love and respect, and on especially solemn occasions they made them very beautiful, of an unusual shape, with various drawings and inscriptions. Tula, Vologda, Tver, Moscow and Arkhangelsk became famous as the "gingerbread capitals", and Tula gingerbreads are well-known in our country today - there the art of their preparation has been passed down from generation to generation for many centuries in a row.
gingerbread recipe
Being a generous friend, she sent the recipe with the following note. Over the years we've all tweaked the recipe to get a dough that feels right when we cut it out - after a few years we've added an extra egg or a few more junk flour depending on the humidity and whether we're eating cookies from overseas or creating our own Christmas village. This is the most recent incarnation of this heirloom recipe. Starting with my friend's family's recipe, we increased the spices and molasses to make softer, more flavorful cookies.
Today, gingerbread can hardly be called the most popular dessert, and the reason for this trend is that store-bought gingerbread has long been different from those that were eaten in Russia before the 20th century, and not every housewife decides to cook homemade ones. Once having prepared gingerbread cookies at home, which is not at all as difficult as it might seem at first glance, you will definitely look at this delicacy in a new way.
Meaty flavor is at the forefront with spices in the background. This is not a soft, monochromatic piece of spice that is thrown on festive dish cookies. Molasses adds both moisture and acidity to the dough, making it quite fine to roll and cut into clean shapes. It also helps the cookies improve a bit when delivering the final product, which has a chewy center and crispy edges.
How to freeze gingerbread cookies
Mash the plastic wrapped dough in a zippered freezer bag and freeze for up to one month, making sure the temperature and baking time are noted. Thaw the dough in the refrigerator before rolling, cutting and baking. Baked cookies can also be frozen - just bring them to room temperature before serving.
Gingerbread dough, which should be noted, is the easiest dough to prepare, which, moreover, bakes very quickly.
Making dough for gingerbread
There are two ways to make dough for gingerbread: custard or raw (simpler). And it is divided into 3 types: honey, sugar (without honey) and honey-sugar. Depending on how the dough will be prepared, you need different amount ingredients. We will give examples for raw dough, which is faster and easier to prepare, however, please note that such gingerbread cookies dry out faster than choux pastry.
Katherine has spent her career building amazing gingerbread houses but says she enjoys hosting her kids' friends to make cookies every year. Make sure your cookies are baked and chilled before guests arrive. She also suggests limiting the icing to two or three colors by creating multiple bags. Decorating the gingerbread cookies with candy is a nod to their medieval roots, but Katherine suggests keeping it simple with pebbles and candy canes.
How to make gingerbread cookies
Whisk dry ingredients together: Whisk flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, cloves and nutmeg together in a medium bowl; postpone. Drain butter and sugar: Place butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a spatula attachment. Blend at medium speed until the butter is fluffy and lighter in color, about 3 minutes. Add molasses, egg and vanilla and mix at medium speed until combined, about 30 seconds. Oil may ooze out, but it will be collected along with the addition of flour and continued mixing. Add dry ingredients: Stop the mixer and clean the sides of the bowl again. Add the flour mixture, then mix on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute. The dough should be thick and sticky. Chill the dough: Remove the dough from the bowl. Divide the dough into 2 pieces, then shape each piece into a 1-inch thick rectangle. Wrap each rectangle in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm but pliable, at least 2 hours or overnight. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Roll up the dough: Sprinkle a few tablespoons of flour on your work surface and rolling pin. Unroll one portion of dough and place on flour. Brush any excess flour off the top of the dough using a dough brush. Cut Cookies: Use cookie cutters to cut as many shapes out of the dough as you can. Transfer cut shapes to baking sheets, leaving 1 inch between each cookie. Leftover dough can be reworked and cut out, but may need to be refrigerated if the dough gets too sticky to get a clean cut. Repeat rolling and cut a second portion of dough until the baking sheets are filled. Bake cookies: Bake for 4 minutes. Turn the baking sheets between the racks and front to back and bake until the edges are dry and slightly darker brown than the rest of the cookies, 4 to 5 more minutes. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely before decorating. Repeat baking the remaining dough, allowing the pasting sheets to cool completely between batches, but reusing the parchment paper. Decorate cookies: Chill, decorate cookies. Add molasses, egg and vanilla: Stop mixer and scrape down sides of bowl. . Yield: 1 Gingerbread House or lots of decorations!
How to make gingerbread dough
You will need:
- for honey dough- 3 cups flour, 3/4 cup honey, 100 g butter, 1 egg, ½ tsp. soda or 50-150 g sour cream, ¼ tsp. chopped spices, ¼ cup of water, kefir, curdled milk or fermented baked milk;
- for sugar dough- 3 cups flour, 1.5 cups sugar, 100 g butter, ½ tsp. soda, 1 tsp chopped spices, ¾ cup of water, kefir, fermented baked milk or yogurt;
- for honey-sugar dough - 3 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, ¼ cup honey, 100 g butter, 1 egg, ½ tsp. soda / sour cream 50-150 g, ½ tsp chopped spices, ¼ tsp. water, kefir, curdled milk or fermented baked milk.
How to make gingerbread dough. Put honey in a saucepan, add softened butter, eggs, add spices, mix everything for 1-2 minutes, add flour (mixed with soda and sifted), knead not too steep dough. In this case, from the dough you will get fragrant honey gingerbread which we all love so much.
Get all your ingredients and measuring cups together. Step 2: Sift flour, cinnamon, ginger and salt and place in a large bowl. Step 3: In a saucepan over medium heat, combine light corn syrup, brown sugar and butter, stir. Do not boil - heat until butter is melted.
Step 4: Pour the butter mixture into the bowl of flour mixture and stir until well combined and batter. Step 6: Using the cutter of your choice, cut out the cookies, scrape off any excess parchment paper, and save for re-roll. If you're going to hang decorations, bend the straw to trim off any excess gingerbread.
If you do sugar gingerbread, then first you need to bring sugar and water to a boil in a saucepan, remove the foam, put the butter, mix, let the syrup cool to room temperature. Too liquid syrup must be boiled so that it flows from the spoon with a “thick thread”. Next, spices, eggs, then sifted flour mixed with soda are added to the cold syrup.
Step 7: Bake until golden brown and firm to the touch, about 15 to 25 minutes. Decorate: we like to do royal icing in a simple way- with meringue powder. Mix it up, make it any color, then remove the tube! We used a #4 round tip test bag. You can also use plastic bag, which zips up when the corner is cut off.
As well as
Confectioner's sugar 7 tablespoons Water, warm. . Combine meringue powder and confectioner's sugar in a bowl. Then continue whipping at medium speed for 8 minutes until the icing is hard but not too hard for the pipe. Keep the royal icing bowl covered with a damp towel at all times so it doesn't dry out! Easy, homemade ornaments are beautiful enough to decorate any tree!
In preparation gingerbread dough has its own tricks:
- If you do honey dough, do not use chemical baking powder (soda, etc.), if you add thick sour cream with a fat content of at least 20% to the dough after cooling it in a ratio of 100-300 g of sour cream per 1 kg of flour (depending on the consistency of the dough), then baking powder is not needed : honey and sour cream will ferment and get real gingerbread dough special consistency;
- For any gingerbread dough, it will be good to add 4 tbsp. cognac, vodka or rum (per 1 kg of flour) - this will give additional loosening;
- If you add soda to honey dough, sour cream-honey fermentation will not start;
- You need to knead the gingerbread dough from 10 to 40 minutes until it is completely homogeneous - the softness and splendor of the gingerbread depends on it;
- It is better to use fruit sugar - fructose, not sucrose;
- Do not knead too steep dough - it will not rise well, and the gingerbread cookies will be hard and ugly, strongly soft dough will not work either - it will not keep its shape, the optimal dough does not stick too much to the hands and the table, it is plastic and lends itself well to molding.
Having made the dough, you need to immediately start molding the gingerbread: ready dough It is rolled out and various figures are cut out of it with the help of molds. The weight of ready-made gingerbread is usually 20-40 g. You need to spread them on a greased sheet if the dough is soft and on a dry sheet if the dough turned out to be steep. Before baking, gingerbread is coated with egg yolks. Thin gingerbread cookies need to be baked for 8-15 minutes in an oven preheated to 220-240 degrees, and after baking they should be immediately wiped with a brush or soft cloth. As a rule, ready-made gingerbreads are glazed (for glaze, you need to beat egg whites with sugar, or boil honey mixed with a small amount juice of sour fruits or berries).
It's so fun to share some of my favorite recipes for celebrating the season without sacrificing good food. And these delicious and festive grain-free gingerbread cookies are definitely delicious and interesting way Experience the joys of healthy, hopeless holiday baking.
This recipe was designed specifically so my kids can enjoy spicy men without the use of refined or processed ingredients. We hope you and your family will enjoy these special little cookie friends too - they really are as fun as they come!
These are the traditional rules for making gingerbread. By following these instructions, you will be able to prepare real gingerbread cookies that will surprise you with their taste and amazing aroma.
Very popular today are ginger and chocolate gingerbread. Consider the recipes for their preparation.
Recipe gingerbread
Irrefutable advice. Place the cut dough in freezer for a few minutes to cut out the cookie pieces a bit so you can get the gingerbread cookies out of parchment paper without losing shape, or dismembering them - oops! You don't need sweet icing to have fun with cookie decorating! Just use your favorite nuts and dried fruits. Mine also makes delicious, more healthy way decorate your favorite holiday cookies, cakes and other desserts.
Use scissors to cut dried fruits into shapes like smiles and buttons. Here are some of our fun and wacky creations! This delicious recipe is just one of over 100 irresistible dairy-free, dairy-free recipes in my new cookbook -!
You will need: 550 g flour, 170 g honey, 150 g powdered sugar, 130 g butter, 100 g sugar, 1 egg white, 1 egg, 2 tsp each soda and ground ginger, 1.5 tsp ground allspice, ground cinnamon and cloves.
How to make gingerbread. Pour sugar, spices, add honey into the pan, bring to a boil, remove from the stove, add soda and mix well. Add the egg, softened butter and sifted flour to the foamy mass, knead the dough. On a floured work surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 0.5 cm, cut out gingerbread cookies using molds. Put the gingerbread cookies on a baking sheet covered with parchment, bake for 15-20 minutes in an oven preheated to 180 degrees. Take out the gingerbread cookies and let them cool slightly, beat the protein into a thick foam, add powdered sugar, beat for another 5 minutes until elastic, transfer to a pastry syringe, decorate the gingerbread with icing, let it dry for 20-30 minutes.
Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas! Yield: 2 dozen cookie cutters. Prepare the dough in a small bowl, combine almond flour, spices, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, combine the butter, Coconut oil, molasses and maple syrup to cream. Then slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat on low speed until fully combined. When the dough has cooled, divide in half. While you wait for the dough to harden, preheat the oven to 350 degrees, then take the other half of the chilled dough out of the fridge and place it on a large sheet of parchment paper and repeat the above steps to roll out and cut out shapes in the dough. Let cool for 3-4 minutes on the baking sheet before removing and placing the cooling rack on the wire. Cut from finely crafted test bench, window shutters, chimneys, fumble, fence, and figures. Sprinkle all parts with milk. Inside: about 10 min. In the middle of the oven, preheat to 180°. Removal, cooling on the grate. Making up the house: Frosting the wall of a gingerbread house with icing on the property. Place roof pieces, glue with glaze, hold until glaze is dry. Cut the chimney down the slope, glue it together, fix it. Put some cotton like smoke. Cut cutter straight down, glue, stand until frosting dries. Fill the dough into a plastic bag or insert it into a plastic bag, close it slightly and store in the refrigerator, the dough does not dry out. The gingerbread is evenly distributed when the dough is allowed to rest overnight. The dough can be prepared several days in advance. - Take the dough out of the refrigerator about 30 minutes in advance. Before kneading, knead again until the color is uniform. - Glaze with powdered sugar should not be too thin so that it sticks well and does not thin. If it's too thin, add powdered sugar.
- Refrigerate the dough for at least one hour.
- Reheat the dough.
- Forms: Dough on fine flour about 5 mm thick.
- House: cut out all parts according to the template.
- Use the prepared metal sheet on the prepared part.
- Cut off the door and window openings with a sharp knife.
chocolate gingerbread recipe
You will need: 200 g sour cream, 100 g butter, 2 eggs, 2 cups flour, ½ cup sugar, 4 tbsp. cocoa and water, 2 tbsp. honey, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 pinch of salt, cinnamon.
How to cook chocolate gingerbread. Put honey and butter in a saucepan, melt, remove from the stove, add 2 tbsp. flour, mix quickly. In a separate bowl, beat eggs with sour cream, sugar, cocoa, salt and cinnamon (you can also add vanilla), pour in the honey mixture, mix well, add flour sifted with baking powder, knead slightly sticky plastic dough. Grease a baking sheet with butter, dust with flour, tear off small pieces from the dough, form gingerbread cookies and put them on a sheet, if it is very sticky, grease it vegetable oil. Bake chocolate gingerbread in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for about 15 minutes. For the glaze, mix water with sugar and cocoa, boil for 5 minutes over low heat, coat the finished gingerbread with this glaze.
Cooking delicious gingerbread- this is a very creative process, depending on what spices you add, the taste and aroma of gingerbread can change a lot, it's not for nothing that recipes in gingerbread families have been passed down from generation to generation. Once you have prepared delicious homemade gingerbread cookies, you will love them forever!
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January 20, 2017 646
The name of this sweet and hearty pastry comes from the word “spice”, since its obligatory component is spices: cinnamon, allspice, cloves, star anise, nutmeg, anise and cardamom. Previously, in Russia, gingerbread was eaten only at holidays or presented as a gift, while decorating it very skillfully.
And they are known over time. Ancient Greece and Rome. Today they are not very popular, perhaps due to the fact that in stores they are sold dry, almost tasteless. You can bake them at home, there is nothing complicated about it.
Homemade gingerbread is a completely different matter, they are juicy and fragrant. There is a classic recipe and its various variations. The pastries are united by a spicy aroma, brown color, a special dough consistency and glaze applied on top.
traditional recipe
Gingerbread is considered a dish of Russian cuisine, in Russia they always added a lot of honey and they were very satisfying. At that time rye flour was most often used, now it is a rarity and therefore wheat flour can also be used. The most traditional is this recipe for honey gingerbread:
- half a kilo of flour;
- a glass of honey;
- yolks of 4 eggs;
- 130 g butter;
- soda;
- spices for gingerbread dough;
- protein of the 1st egg;
- 150 g of powdered sugar.
Cooking time: 40 min.
Calories per 100g: 310 Kcal.
Pour soda into honey heated in a water bath.
Remove from heat and pour in flour with spices, those that were not hammered initially, grind it yourself in a mortar. Pour in the melted butter, mix thoroughly and only then add the yolks.
Knead the dough until it stops sticking. In the process of kneading, you can still add flour, but do not get carried away, otherwise the gingerbread cookies will be dry.
Send the dough to the refrigerator.
Form honey gingerbread, but not very thick. And send them to hot oven, bake at 180-200 degrees.
After they are baked, you need to coat them with glaze and wait for it to dry.
The icing is done like this: the whites are whipped until a strong foam and powdered sugar is poured into them.
Tula
Tula gingerbread has always been famous for patterns and even whole pictures on them, which were displayed with syrup with icing. They are always made with stuffing. Recipe Tula gingerbread at home he kept a secret for a long time so as not to go beyond Tula. Now they are easy to cook in any kitchen in the world. For 12 servings you will need:
- half a kilo of flour;
- 350 g of sugar;
- 4 tbsp. l of water;
- 150 g of honey;
- 4 eggs;
- 70 g butter;
- baking powder;
- some salt;
- spices for gingerbread dough;
- 400 g jam;
- protein of the 1st egg;
- 150 g of powdered sugar.
Cooking time: 40 min.
Calories per 100g: 260 Kcal.
Mix together 150 g of sugar, honey and water. Warm up in a water bath until foam forms and turn off, strain through cheesecloth.
After the mass has cooled down a little, pour a little flour with soda through a sieve and start kneading the dough.
In the process of kneading, add butter, 2 eggs and spices. Remove for at least 30 minutes in a film in a cold place. Roll out the dough and cut into plates 2 times the preferred size, spread jam on half and cover the second, seal the edges so that it does not spill out.
From the scraps on top, you can lay out patterns in the form of leaves, etc. Bake in an oven preheated to 200 g until cooked. After they are baked, grease them with whipped protein with the remaining sugar. Cool until frosting dries.
Gingerbread on kefir
And this recipe is for those who do not like to bother a lot or have limited time. The process of making kefir gingerbread at home is as simple as the set of ingredients.
Yes, the taste will not be quite canonical, but the spices will do their job and the spicy aroma will add a specific gingerbread taste. Any will do fermented milk product: fermented baked milk, curdled milk, katyk, but kefir is still preferable.
The ingredients for this recipe are:
- half a liter of kefir;
- 750 g flour;
- half a kilo of sugar;
- 3 eggs;
- 50 ml vegetable oil;
- baking powder;
- salt;
- a sachet of vanillin;
- spices for gingerbread dough;
- 100 g sugar for syrup.
Cooking time: 30 min.
Calories per 100g: 278 Kcal.
Mix kefir, sugar, eggs, butter, soda, spices and salt. Knead the dough gradually adding all the flour with baking powder and vanilla.
Form gingerbread cookies by cutting circles with a glass with thin edges from a layer of rolled dough. Heat sugar in a water bath, slightly diluted with water. Lubricate the gingerbread with sugar syrup.
ginger
Consider the recipe for gingerbread. They are always associated with winter, warm comfort and New Year's fuss.
To maintain this entourage, it is best to mold them with special Christmas molds in the form of a person, an asterisk, etc. You can play around decorating with tinted icing. You will need:
- half a kilo of flour;
- 170 g of honey;
- half a pack of butter;
- 150 g of sugar;
- 2 eggs;
- baking powder;
- spices for gingerbread dough;
- 5 g chopped ginger;
- protein of the 1st egg;
- 150 g of powdered sugar.
Preparation: 40 min.
Calories per 100 g: 388 kcal.
Sugar, spices and honey bring to a boil in a water bath, turn off. Add soda. After mixing, the mass will foam and add eggs, butter and flour there.
Roll out the resulting dough half a centimeter thick. And cut with molds or thin glass gingerbread. bake on parchment paper in the oven, at 200 degrees, 20 minutes.
Then brush them with frosting.
Glazed gingerbread with filling
Gingerbread can be made with various fillings. It can be jam, chocolate, jam and even boiled condensed milk. Gingerbread with cherry and chocolate filling is very tasty.
In general, Tula is always made with filling, but it has a strict recipe and deviations from it do not allow calling all gingerbread with filling Tula. But there are other recipes as well. For example, this one:
- half a kilo of flour;
- a glass of sugar;
- a glass of honey;
- half a pack of butter;
- 2 eggs;
- a little baking powder;
- spices for gingerbread dough;
- 400 g of filling;
- 1 egg white;
- 150 g of powdered sugar.
Preparation: 50 min.
Calories per 100 g: kcal.
Shake eggs with sugar. Add honey and oil to them. And heat everything together in a water bath, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and add 1/5 of all flour, mix. Add spices and soda to this mass and gradually mix in the rest of the flour.
Remove the dough in the film in a cold place. The filling should be thick, if only liquid is available, it can be boiled down to a density. You can start one big gingerbread.
To do this, divide the dough into two equal parts and roll out both, spread one with the filling and cover the second on top, pinch the edges. It is better to do it right away.
You can make several small ones, for this you need to do a similar procedure, but with small circles. Brush with glaze.
Baking on sour cream with citrus notes
You can make gingerbread with sour cream. It is also very fast and easy recipe with a slight deviation from classic recipe, like gingerbread on kefir. On sour cream, they are very airy and tender. Necessary:
- half a kilo of flour;
- a glass of sour cream;
- 170 g of sugar;
- half a pack of butter;
- 2 eggs;
- zest of 1 orange;
- a pinch of baking powder;
- a sachet of vanillin;
- spices for gingerbread dough;
- a pinch of salt;
- protein of the 1st egg;
- 150 g of powdered sugar.
Preparation: 40 min.
Calories per 100 g: 308 kcal.
How to prepare the dough and bake gingerbread on sour cream? Melt the butter, pour in the eggs, vanilla and sugar, mix. Add spices to this mass. Now add sour cream and mix again.
Add flour with baking powder and knead the dough. Remove it under the film in a cold place. Take it out and form it into gingerbread cookies. Then everything is as in the classic recipe.
Bake for 20 minutes at 10 degrees, remove and brush with glaze. Let cool until frosting is set and serve.
Gingerbread cookies have been made for more than a century, and the housewives have noticed some tricks that will help in proper cooking gingerbread dough.
- The ratio of gingerbread spices is approximately 55% cinnamon, 10% cloves, allspice, star anise, nutmeg, 5% cardamom.
- You can stir the mixture of gingerbread spices directly into in large numbers and use it every time you cook gingerbread, adding to taste.
- You can quickly grease with icing like this: pour the icing into a food container with a lid and pour the gingerbread into it, close the lid and shake well. And when the icing dries up, get the finished gingerbread cookies out of the container.
- On a small budget butter You can always substitute margarine.
- Sugar can be added more or less, depending on preference, but other ingredients should be exactly according to the recipe.
- Instead of parchment, you can sprinkle flour on a baking sheet.
- Before baking, it would be nice to grease the gingerbread cookies with yolk or milk.
- Icing for gingerbread should be made immediately before spreading.
- Sugar can also be used for icing, but with powdered sugar, the icing will become faster and more delicate in taste.
- You can always add to any of the recipes orange peel, raisins or marzipan, their taste goes well with spices.
- The longer the dough lies in the refrigerator, the better, you can even leave it for a day.
- The secret of delicious gingerbread is in a long batch, you have to do it long and hard.
- There is a special gingerbread board for forming a printed gingerbread, you can buy it from the craftsmen of Russian folk art. You can replace it with a silicone curly mold for cupcakes.
- Gingerbread cookies are stored for a long time, in a cool place in a sealed container for up to 2 weeks. And even when frozen, they do not lose their taste.
- Cognac can be used as a baking powder (about 30 ml per pound of flour).
- Store baked goods at room temperature or frozen.
Have a nice tea party with cooked gingerbread!
