Gingerbread Cookie recipe

Gingerbread.....it's that time of year and there are lots of recipes out there. But I've got a project coming up and I needed a recipe that tastes good but doesn't spread.

Yup like these ones in the picture above.


So starting with my original recipe I tweaked and tried, and tried and tweaked again (and again and again).

It's pretty warm where I am at the moment and I like to trial a cookie recipe for about a year until I'm happy with it - y'know they work different in different weather.

So this is the best of the batch, it rolled out the best with the minimum spread after baking and the taste was spicy and not overly sweet.

You can see in the picture that some are a little darker, those are the ones with cocoa in - you can omit the cocoa if you like and your cookies will end up a light golden colour.

These cookies in the pictures above are simply cut out with gingerbread men ejector cutters where you press out, press down to imprint the shape and then eject the cookie onto the tray. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes. I decorated them with a little royal icing and heart sprinkles in place of buttons.


Gingerbread Cookie Recipe
*Make sure that the spices you use are fresh as possible if you want your cookies to be aromatic and tasty. Conversions to imperial are approx.
EDIT - I made these with both white sugar as per the recipe below and golden syrup (molasses, treacle, dark corn syrup) - the same weight and the recipe turned out well. I found it kept it's shape better with the white sugar which was important to me for what I was doing. The golden syrup gave a light fragrant undertone to the cookie, just putting the option out there for you.

455g plain flour (1 pound all purpose flour)
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground allspice (or ground cloves if you prefer)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa(US 1Tbsp + 1 tsp)
230g unsalted butter (8 1/8 oz) softened (not too soft
70g dark brown sugar (2 1/2oz)
70g white sugar
1 egg


Sift together flour, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, baking powder, salt and cocoa and set aside until required.

In the bowl of an electric mixer cream together the butter, brown and white sugar at high speed for 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium low, add the egg and mix until combined.

Reduce speed to low and mix in flour mixture until the dough clumps together and is well combined.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge until firm.

Once dough is firm remove from fridge and roll out on a workbench dusted with a little plain (all purpose) flour. You may need to knead the dough a little to make it pliable.

Cut out shapes and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Place trays of unbaked cookies into fridge for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 160C (320F)

Bake for 8 to 12 minutes (depending on cookie size) remove from oven and allow to cool on trays for 5 minutes. Remove from trays carefully and place onto wire racks to cool completely.

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go! . Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores.

Original Ideas, photography and recipes by Linda Vandermeer do not reuse without permission.