Gingerbread cookies with glaze - a simple and delicious recipe

Baking homemade cookies is not at all difficult. Baking it takes little time, but you will always have delicious pastries for tea. Since the New Year holidays are lasting, and Christmas is ahead of us. Signs of this holiday include a Christmas tree, a wreath, a nativity scene, gifts, a roasted goose and, of course, delicious gingerbread cookies with icing.

The delicacy prepared according to this recipe comes out very tasty, fragrant and at the same time easy to prepare. To make it, you can use any spices: ginger, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, nutmeg, and you can also add zest from citrus fruits.

Christmas baking differs from other baked goods in that the finished delicacy is covered with icing on top. You can use it to draw snowflakes, a Christmas tree, a gingerbread man. Also, the form of baking can also be different; it is best for these purposes to use special kits for cutting out dough, or use improvised ones, for example, clean children's molds.

Gingerbread New Year's cookies with glaze - regular recipe

Baking a delicacy according to this recipe is essentially very simple. To knead the dough, just mix the ingredients and put the finished dough in the refrigerator for some time. Then the dough is rolled out, shapes are cut out of it and baked in the oven. And the last step is to make icing and use it to draw pictures on the cooled baked goods. And at the moment, most carefully about the process of making cookies.

Wheat flour – 250-300 g,
Butter – 100 g,
Sugar (can be brown) – 100 g,
1 chicken egg,
Honey – 2 tbsp. l.,
Soda – 0.5 tsp,
Ground ginger – 2 tsp,
Spices as desired - 1 tsp.

As spices you can take cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, aromatic pepper, anise, nutmeg. Spices need to be ground in a coffee grinder in advance so that they have a powder consistency.

How to bake New Year's gingerbread cookies with icing

Sift the flour into a deep cup, add soda and ground spices there.

Mix flour and spices well.

In another cup, stir the softened butter and sweet sand, beat them with a mixer until a fluffy mass is obtained. When the butter and sugar lighten, add 1 egg and continue beating. Add slightly heated honey to the egg-butter mixture. I had sinful honey, that’s why it is black.

Mix everything well, and then first add half the flour with spices, mix with a whisk. Then add the remaining flour and knead the dough with a spatula.

If the dough is very soft and sticks to your hands, you can add more flour. In total, you will need from 250 to 300 grams of flour.

We form the dough into a ball (it is still soft), put it in a cup, cover it with cling film and put it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, ideally overnight (that is, in the dark) . After refrigeration, the dough will be stiffest and easier to roll out.

Place parchment on the surface and roll out the dough on it to a width of 3-4 mm. To ensure the dough rolls out perfectly, place another sheet of parchment on top.

Cut out shapes on the rolled out dough.

Using a spatula or a wide knife, carefully transfer the shapes onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Place the shapes at a small distance from each other, because they will increase in size during baking.

We collect the excess dough into one lump and put it back in the refrigerator so that it cools slightly: soft dough is more difficult to roll out.

Place the baking sheet with the preparations in an oven preheated to 180ºC for 5-7 minutes, until a golden crust appears.

Place the finished treat on a flat surface to cool.

How to make eggless gingerbread cookie frosting at home

The coating for painting cookies is very simple to make. The most important thing in this matter is patience. For the glaze you will need:

150 g sweet powder,
1 tbsp. l. boiled cool water,
2 tsp. lemon juice.

Place the sweet powder into a tea cup or small bowl. First, add lemon juice to the sweet powder and mix very well.

Then add water in small batches (a few drops at a time). Each time we mix it very well so that the end result is a sweet syrup that does not spill and holds its shape perfectly. True glaze comes out viscous, snow-white homogeneous mass with a glossy surface.

Place the finished coating in a plastic bag, cut off the very edge of the corner, and, squeezing the icing out of the bag, decorate the finished gingerbread cookies.

Glaze for decorating (painting) gingerbread cookies

If you want to create a multi-colored coating, you can use natural dyes. Then add juice instead of water.

Reddish color - add raspberry, lingonberry, cherry, lemon juice. The most striking color comes from dark currant juice.
The greenish color is watery chlorophyll, it looks like brilliant green on the outside. If you drip much less, you get a light salad color, more - greenish.
Yellowish color. Turmeric powder is added to water and stirred, but you should not overuse it, because it imparts a certain taste to the liver that not many people will like. You can dilute turmeric with sea buckthorn juice. Or dilute the sweet powder with carrot juice.

A sky blue color can be obtained by adding red cabbage juice to sweet powder. But it can also add an unnecessary aftertaste.
Blueberry juice will give the glaze a grayish or gray-lilac color.
The brown color can be achieved by adding cocoa powder. You can also add a few crystals of instant coffee to the water, you will also get a wonderful brown color.

How long do homemade gingerbread cookies with icing last?

Store-bought delicacies are usually packaged in a suitable manner, which allows them to be stored in packaged form for up to 6 months at a temperature not exceeding 21º and a humidity not exceeding 73%.

Ginger cookies can be baked at home in advance for the New Year or Christmas. Then you need to take care of its proper storage, so that on holiday it will please everyone with its taste. It is better to store finished baked goods in tin cans lined with parchment paper.

Thanks to honey, which is constantly present in the composition and has antibacterial properties, baked goods in a tightly closed container can be stored for quite a long time. Honey also helps develop the taste of the finished product over time, making it softer and more fragrant.

But it is not recommended to store baked goods in a closed plastic bag; they will simply “suffocate” there and become completely tasteless.

Dear readers, try to bake these delicious gingerbread cookies with icing. And it’s not bad luck that New Year or Christmas has already passed; such a delicacy will always be in place for your tea party throughout the year.

Icing for gingerbread cookies

During the New Year and Christmas holidays, a special atmosphere reigns: dreams come true, fairy-tale characters come to life, stars descend from the sky, and there is nothing impossible that the inhabitants of the Earth wish for. Grievances are forgotten, enemies are forgiven, things are settled - and in any home, family members gather around the comfortable hearth to express their endless love for each other. And this warm and magical atmosphere is very successfully complemented by savory treats, for example, ginger cookies.

Once upon a time, in the 11th century, a monk, who decided to prepare a treat for his brothers in faith, thought about it and instead of flour added ginger to the cookie dough. The monks liked the treat so much that making it became a good tradition in the monastery. Now this recipe is known in every home. Cinnamon and cocoa are added to the dough, so the figures have a pleasant golden color. They definitely make icing for gingerbread cookies - it turns Christmas trees, houses, deer, snowflakes and rabbits into true masterpieces of art. If you add colored powder, edible beads or dragees to the snow-white pictures, the treat will look so decorated that the figures can be safely hung on the New Year tree.

Modern traditions

Prepare gingerbread cookies with glaze not only for New Year and Christmas, but any other day. Children really like it, because any figure comes out big and looks as if it is alive. You can use the recipe for gingerbread cookies with glaze, replacing some ingredients with others, but ginger has been and remains a constant component of this wonderful sweetness. Grate the freshest ginger on a small grater or buy a ground product (the first option is much preferable). Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves - if you have any of these additives in the house, feel free to add them to the dough.

Other modern traditions of gingerbread cookies include various production methods. The main recipe calls for adding water, but add milk instead, and the white foam will develop a sweet, creamy flavor. If anyone in your family is allergic to chicken eggs, remove the whites and make a powdered icing with lemon juice and water. These options are endless, just like the different decorations for the finished cookies. If, for example, you add a new element (butterflies or flowers made from icing) to the “composition” of multi-colored New Year’s cookies topped with white icing, then the household will clap their hands in ecstasy.

How to create gingerbread cookies?

To make cookies with ginger, prepare a set of goods:

butter – half a small pack (150 g);
snow-white flour - 2 cups (be sure to sift);
chicken egg – 1 pc.;
sugar – 0.5 cups;
baking powder - 1 tbsp. l (maybe a little less);
cinnamon, nutmeg - optional to taste;
grated ginger – 3 tsp.

Mix the dry ingredients thoroughly. Beat the egg and sugar. Remove the butter from the refrigerator in advance to make it soft. Combine watery and dry ingredients. Place the refrigerator in the bag. When the dough hardens, remove half. Roll out the dough - its thickness should be approximately 0.5-1 cm. Do everything very quickly, otherwise the dough will “float”.

Cut out the shapes, take a baking sheet and place them at a distance of 2 cm from each other. Remove the rest of the dough from the plastic bag and repeat. Or bake the first batch of cookies first, and then repeat the manipulations with the remaining raw dough. As soon as the cookies “grab” with a brown crust on the sides, the cookies will be ready. Prepare the glaze that will be used for filling or painting.

The incomparable advantage of ginger baked goods is the ability to store them for a long time. Place the cookies in a cool place (definitely in the refrigerator) and they will retain their flavor for up to 2 weeks. You can get it at any time and treat it to relatives or guests who drop by for a visit. If the glaze has frozen for quite a long time (at least 12 hours), then the painted pictures and patterns will retain their original appearance right until the moment when people dear to your heart sit down at the table.

What icing can be used to decorate cookies?

If you want the icing to be thicker, then increase the amount of sweet powder. To make it wateriest, increase the water size. Correctly prepared glaze “sets”, first turning into a viscous mass, and then hardening. For gingerbread figurines, good decorations are those that will not peel off the cookies, but will stick perfectly to the entire surface. Since the texture of the dough is crumbly and warm, the glaze from which the patterns are made should also be light, airy, melting in the mouth. Before decorating gingerbread cookies, think about the preferences of your loved ones. Take into account not only the wishes of relatives, but also their state of health.

Can they eat sugar, lemon juice, and proteins? Based on this, choose a suitable glaze recipe for gingerbread cookies - there are so many of them that you will definitely find the best one, which you will use from now on all the time to decorate baked goods. Prepare an incredibly delicious glaze that you can use to color not only gingerbread cookies, but also any other baked goods:

from sweet powder, egg whites and lemon juice (this recipe is the basis for icing, which can also be used to color treats);
from powder and citric acid (without proteins) - cooked over fire;
made from milk, sweet powder and sweet syrup.

If making just snow-white glaze seems like a sour task for you, involve the kids in it, then the process of decorating the figures will turn into an interesting culinary adventure for all family members. How to make colored glaze? Prepare several cups, and when the watery glaze is ready, pour it into the cups in equal parts. Add various food colorings to the protein portions. Decorating baked goods with colorful solutions is a pleasure.

Buy several pastry bags in advance. Fill them half or a third full with icing of various colors. Trim the ends of the bags with scissors. Gently squeeze this glaze onto the shortbread dough shapes, forming patterns. Little ones will be ecstatic as they transform faceless pieces of dough into their beloved fairy-tale characters with their own hands!

Video of making glaze for gingerbread cookies

Ingredients

In some glaze recipes for gingerbread cookies, all the ingredients are combined and whipped together. It is not correct. In order for protein and sweet powder to transform into stable protein foam, you need to be “saturated” with oxygen. Therefore, the ingredients are added one by one.

Lastly come the dyes. Prepare foods:

sweet powder – 1 cup;
chicken egg white – 1 piece (choose a larger egg);
citrus juice – 1 tbsp. (orange or lemon);
water – 2 tbsp.

Sweet powder and protein are the base from which a lush foam is formed. And lemon juice fixes it and gives the glaze the appropriate sourness. If you don’t have sweet powder, then replace it with sugar, but then it’s better to create a sweet syrup from it in advance (boil water with sugar and stir until it dissolves and the liquid becomes a thick mixture).

To make a sweet coating for eggless gingerbread cookies, you can add:

milk – 4 tbsp;
sugar – 4 tbsp. l.;
grated chocolate or cocoa – 2 tbsp;
a piece of butter weighing 50 g.

Fast manufacturing process

Knowing the main recipe for how to create the glaze, you can change it as desired. Add milk instead of water or add a pinch of vanilla to the protein mixture - the taste of the glaze will instantly change. Recipes without eggs are chosen by people who are not allowed to eat chicken eggs, and egg delicacies are difficult for them to access due to illness or a vegetarian diet. Apply the glaze to the gingerbread cookies very quickly, so that it hardens instantly, and after it is applied, do not touch the figures for several hours. Prepare the icing for the cookies, taking your time (icing doesn’t like to be rushed) and following the exact sequence of steps:

beat the egg whites with a fork or whisk (if you have a mixer or blender, use them);
add the pre-sifted sweet powder in small portions to the egg whites, continuing to beat the mixture;
add water and lemon juice without stopping the stirring process.

Chocolate glaze is also very easy to prepare. Heat milk and sugar, add cocoa or chopped chocolate, stir with butter. The result is a delicious and perfect coating for cookies. This dessert is often used by chefs for various types of baking. Take the mixture with a spoon and spread in small portions over the surface of the product. It is better to prepare the glaze for gingerbread cookies and spread it several hours before guests arrive. You should end up with a thin, shiny brown crust.

Without ginger, cooking is unimaginable, and although it is not required for other baking, its special, “warm” taste turns ordinary tea drinking into a feast for the soul. A special, trusting atmosphere is created in which people feel suitable and loved. Perhaps at this time their dreams are already being realized by the heavenly magician.

Icing (icing for cookies and gingerbread)

You've probably seen cookies, gingerbreads, or other confectionery products painted with glaze on the Internet or at Christmas markets that looked practically like works of art. icing or, in other words, sweet glaze is used as such glaze Now I will tell you what it is and how to quickly and deftly prepare it.

Icing (English: “Royal icing”, translated as “royal icing”) is a protein paste for decorating desserts and various baked goods. The mass can be snow-white or colored when food coloring is added to it. I will make icing that will be used as a glaze for gingerbread cookies and gingerbread .

Ingredients

egg white 1 pc.
sweet powder 200 g
lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon

To make icing, we need only two main ingredients - egg white and sweet powder.

From the 1st egg of group C0 comes a fairly large amount of icing, which is enough for two 10-piece gingerbread cookies.

Manufacturing

We prepare all the necessary ingredients. Wash the egg thoroughly with soap. We carefully separate the egg white from the yolk.

Add sifted sweet powder to the protein. It is imperative to sift; there may be sugar crystals in the powder that need to be removed. Otherwise, in the future they may interfere little with work, clogging the cut corner of the pastry bag.

Mix with a mixer or blender with a whisk attachment at a leisurely speed for 2 minutes. The glaze will begin to turn white evenly, this is due to protein oxidation. Next, add half a teaspoon of lemon juice, which will make the icing shine and shimmer a little in the light, and beat again for 3 minutes. The sugar-protein mixture will become a thick, homogeneous, snow-white mass.

In fact, the icing is almost ready.
The glaze dries quickly, so if you are not going to work with it for the next few minutes, it is better to cover it with cling film or a lid. Next, if you need icing of different colors, then put the icing in different containers and add food coloring of a color that suits us. I use Americolor gel dye. The quantity is determined by the intensity of the color you want to achieve. But it is worth considering that when drying, the glaze darkens a little and the color becomes richer.

Mix. Look how wonderful it is!

And that's not all!
Typically, glaze is divided into 3 types: - thick - for gluing parts for a gingerbread house, drawing small details and inscriptions;
- medium thickness - for the contours of drawings;
- watery - for filling inside contours.

We need to decide what kind of sketch will be on our gingerbread cookies, this is necessary to understand how much icing of each type will be useful to us.

Our thick icing is ready. The mixture must be thick enough: the mass stays on the spoon and does not fall even when the spoon is turned on its side.

To obtain medium-thick icing, add a little water to the initial mass and mix. It’s better to add drop by drop so as not to overdo it. If the mass is still thick, then repeat the process. The mixture comes out medium thick: the mass on the spoon slowly slides down when turned.

To obtain a watery icing, add a little more water to the initial mass and mix. If the mass is still thick, then repeat the process. The mixture comes out a little thicker than condensed milk. The mixture drips off the spoon when turned on its side. We do the filling like this: first, use thick icing to draw a line along the perimeter of the future filling, and then fill the inside with watery icing.

We put our mixture into pastry bags. You can use regular thick bags or even zip bags if you don’t have pastry bags. Or a pastry syringe.

We cut off the edge and start drawing. The main thing is not to be afraid of this matter. Gingerbread cookies will still turn out to be a decoration for any tea party. My artistic talent is not enough, but I still drew it well, it seems to me. So, you can apply the glaze in any way you like, as indicated by the heart. In general, there are no restrictions. Kids just love this kind of creativity, and it’s the best thing to create with them. The most common option is to create a solid fill with one color. First, we make a contour with thick icing, which we fill with watery icing. A toothpick will help to carefully distribute everything inside and smooth it out.

Two-color mitten. From the photo, I think everything is clear: first we draw the outline, fill it, then draw snow-white “polka dots” on the reddish one and draw it through the center of the circle with a toothpick. Finishing touch: sprinkle sugar on the base of the mitten.

Another option for decorating gingerbread cookies: draw several lines into the filled outline with watery icing of a different color and immediately draw a toothpick along the lines perpendicular to them, first in one direction, then in the other, and so on. What emerges is a simple but wonderful sketch.

Icing dries in different ways: thick icing takes 30 minutes, watery icing dries in a couple of hours at room temperature before pouring. If a thick layer of icing was placed on the cookies, the time increases. In a couple of hours the icing will literally dry!

The main thing in this matter is a creative approach. Experiment when drawing! You can involve the whole family because it is quite a fun and interesting process. If you didn't consume the whole mass right away, you can store it in a tightly closed container for a couple of weeks. Remember that the glaze hardens quickly when exposed to air.

How to create icing for gingerbread cookies?

A common Christmas treat is gingerbread cookies. This savory, fragrant pastry with the taste of ginger and spices is often prepared in the form of fairy-tale characters, Christmas trees and other figurines.

Gingerbread cookies create a festive atmosphere by decorating them with icing. Confectioners call it icing (translated from British as royal icing) - this is a protein mass for decorating baked goods. Read on to learn how to create the frosting and bake gingerbread cookies.

Ingredients
Manufacturing
3 easy glaze recipes
Caramel
Colored
Based on natural juice.
Small but important secrets

Ingredients

The gingerbread cookie frosting recipe is made with egg whites and powdered sugar. 1 egg will be enough to decorate several 10 gingerbread cookies. There are other recipes for gingerbread cookies with glaze, for the production of which, in addition to sugar and eggs, you will need the following ingredients:

Lemon juice or other citrus fruits are added for an inimitable aroma and taste.
Yolk can also be one of the icing ingredients; it gives a wonderful yellow color.
Butter.
Milk is often consumed instead of water.
Cocoa powder will create a chocolate glaze.
Vanilla imparts a pleasant smell.

Food coloring is also used for icing.

Manufacturing

To properly prepare the glaze for gingerbread cookies according to the traditional recipe, prepare:

1 testicle;
200 g sweet powder;
1/2 tsp. lemon juice.

We only need the white, so we carefully separate it from the yolk. In a separate clean and dry bowl, combine the protein with sifted sweet powder. Beat everything at medium mixer speed for 2 minutes.

Advice! It is better to introduce sweet powder in parts, because eggs come in different weights, and sugar has different properties. Therefore, first we bring the protein to the formation of a light foam, and then we begin to add powder, without stopping the mixer.

Add 1/2 tsp to the protein mass. lemon juice, and continue beating for about 3 minutes until “large peaks” are obtained. Now the glaze will acquire the desired gloss, will sparkle in the sun, and will also acquire the correct thick consistency.

The icing is ready, but remember that it dries quite quickly. If you do not plan to use it for decoration in the next couple of minutes, then it is better to cover the container with a moistened cloth.

If you need colorful icing for your gingerbread cookies, divide it into different containers and add the color of food coloring you want. With all this, it is important to keep in mind that it will darken slightly after drying, and its color will be the most saturated.

To color gingerbread cookies, you will need 3 types of icing:

Thick - you can use it to glue together parts, for example, for a gingerbread house. The thick mixture is used to create inscriptions and small details are drawn with it.
Medium thickness - it is used to make contours.
Watery - used for filling along finished contours.

Therefore, it is necessary to select a sketch for New Year's gingerbread cookies in advance in order to prepare the icing of the appropriate mixture in the required quantity. To change the thickness, you need to add a little water to the initial mass.

3 easy glaze recipes

We offer several recipes for icing that is used to decorate gingerbread cookies.

Caramel

Components:

100 g coffee sugar;
200 g sweet powder;
vanillin packaging;
3 tbsp. l. milk;
2 tbsp. l. butter.

Manufacturing scheme:

Place the butter in a saucepan and melt it over low heat, then pour in the milk, add sugar, stirring constantly, melt all the ingredients.
Remove the mixture from heat and add 1/2 part of the sweet powder. Using a whisk, beat well, leave to cool, then add the remaining sweet powder and vanilla.
Whisk everything vigorously again to obtain medium consistency.

Colored

200 g sweet powder;
2 tbsp. l. milk;
1 tbsp. l. corn syrup;
1/2 tsp. almond extract;
food coloring in suitable colors.

Combine milk and sweet powder, mix well until a viscous mixture is obtained.
Now add corn syrup and almond extract and whisk again. The mass must acquire a gloss.
We transfer the glaze into different dishes, add a suitable dye to each of them.

Based on natural juice.

You can use any natural fruit juice in the base: raspberries, strawberries, cranberries, apples, etc.

freshly squeezed natural fruit juice – 500 ml;
sugar – 600 g;

Berries can be rubbed through a sieve, and juice can be extracted from the fruit using a juicer.
Mix the juice with sugar in a saucepan and set the gas to cook; the mass must be boiled in such a way that it turns into a thick syrup.
Pour into a glass container and wait until it becomes thick enough for you as it cools.

The glaze is applied using a pastry syringe, bag or brush.

Small but important secrets

For gingerbread cookies with glaze to be truly successful, you need to know a couple of secrets:

To ensure that the yolk-based product is not dangerous, it should be dried in the oven or microwave.
To avoid using food dyes, you can add natural products during the manufacturing process to tint the color. This could be raspberry jam or berry juice.
To make chocolate glaze, it is not recommended to use porous chocolate; it is better to add cocoa.
It is better to apply with a brush and in several layers, but it is more convenient to apply glaze for painting using a syringe.
Icing dries differently: watery icing can take a couple of hours to dry before pouring, but thick icing can dry in 30 minutes. To speed up the drying process of the glaze, the baking sheet with the prepared gingerbread cookies can be placed in a preheated oven for a few minutes.

Be creative when it comes to decorating, there are no exact rules here, so give free rein to your imagination, maximum creativity, and you will end up with truly inimitable, delicious pastries. Gingerbread cookies are definitely worth making to create a festive atmosphere in your home.