Gingerbread People
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Everyday Food, December 2007
- Prep Time 55 minutes
- Total Time 1 hour, 15 minutes plus chilling
- Yield Makes 18
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Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for rolling
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 3/4 cup unsulfured molasses
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 4 teaspoons powdered egg whites (meringue powder)
Directions
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy; beat in egg and molasses. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture; mix just until combined. Divide dough in half; flatten into disks. Wrap each in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours and up to 2 days, or freeze up to 3 months (thaw before baking).
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks set in upper and lower thirds. Working with one disk at a time, place dough on lightly floured parchment paper, and roll out to 1/8 inch thick, dusting lightly with flour as needed. Using paper, lift dough onto two baking sheets; freeze until firm, about 20 minutes.
- Remove paper and dough from baking sheets. Using a long offset spatula, loosen dough from paper. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters, and brush off any excess flour. Transfer to baking sheets. (Gather scraps, briefly freeze, and re-roll.)
- For softer cookies, bake 8 to 10 minutes; for crunchier cookies, bake 11 to 12 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Make icing: In a large bowl, whisk together confectioners' sugar, powdered egg whites, and 1/4 cup water (if needed, adjust consistency with confectioners' sugar). Transfer icing to a pastry bag with a small tip, or place in a resealable plastic bag, and snip a small hole in one corner. Decorate cookies as desired.
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I don’t have any issues with this recipe at all. Make sure you chill the dough well like you do sugar cookies. Love it and will make it again!
On the new mstewart cookie app it leaves out flour as an ingredient for this recipe!! No wonder they tasted like pure butter. i want a refund, terrible app and hardly any content
I tried these cookies yesterday and had a terrible time with the dough. It was so sticky, even after re-chilling them I couldn't get them off of the parchment paper. I ended up scrapping the dough off and rolling it into balls and flattening them out, sort of making a ginger snap. Taste was good but I don't think I'll make them again.
Are these chewy or crunchy? I need a chewy gingerbread roll out cookie recipe.
sorry I didn't get to finish what I was saying...there's teh Gingerbread Cookies, and the gingerbread People. Besided the obvious differences with the ingredients...what other differences, taste or texture, are there between these two recipes?
I noticed that Marth has two kinds of Gingerbread cookies recipes - The Gingerbread Cookies
this is a great recipe; perfect for the holidays. i make mine with light brown sugar. i do not like the recommended icing though.
make sure the dough is rolled at a consistent thickness or you'll end up with some softer and some harder cookies. DO NOT over-bake!
I love this recipe, the cookies are nice and spicy and the icing dries hard because of the egg whites so they are great as gifts, not too messy. I'm sure they could last more than a week in an airtight container, I shipped some out to relatives.
These are great even plain. I have yet to decorate a batch because they always taste so good. Mine have stayed in an airtight container for up to a week in a cool place.
Gingerbread is nice but you can do the same thing with sugar cookie dough or chocolate roll out dough. They get a little crunchy when used on the tree but if you dunk them in coffee, tea or milk you will not notice it. Enjoy!
Do you know how long these will stay fresh in an airtight container? I am looking for pretty cookies to offer as gifts, but I need them to stay good for at least a week. Thanks! Monique.
I don't think these would make good ornaments for more than just a day. The cookies have sugar in them that would attract insects. Also, I think they would dry out. There are several salt dough ornament recipes on the Internet. You could add cinnamon and cocoa powder to those to make them look like ornaments.
Candace--the dough can be frozen up to a couple weeks ahead and thawed in the fridge before baking. You can also freeze the undecorated baked cookies in layers between sheets of parchment paper. Happy baking!
Would these work to use as orniments? Any ideas?
Can I freeze these?
A really great-tasting gingerbread cookie. We went the "softer cookie" route, and were very pleased with the end result.