Gingerbread with glaze from Lena

Greetings, my friends!

Now I will allow myself to deviate from established traditions and give up space on the podium to blog reader and mother-heroine)) Lena.

Elena paints gingerbreads amazingly and she even managed to amaze me with the concept of “mosaic gingerbread”.

Elena decided to kindly provide us with her gingerbread cookies with icing. More precisely, not the gingerbread cookies themselves, but the recipe for making them. Personally, it reminded me of making honey cakes. I'm sure it tastes similar.

I give the floor to Elena and hope her recipe will be useful to you. I will definitely use it too!

The recipe base itself was found on the Internet, but as I worked with the dough, I changed it, so it’s a little bit mine)

Gingerbread

Ingredients:

butter or margarine - 200 gr.
sugar - 150-200 gr.
honey - 150 gr.
ginger, ground - 2 tsp.
cloves, ground - on the tip of a knife
cinnamon - 1 tsp.
cardamom – ½ tsp.
coriander – ½ tsp.
nutmeg - 1 pinch
salt - 1 pinch
soda - ½ tsp.
yolks - 4 pcs.
rye flour - 200 gr.
wheat flour - 300 gr.

Manufacturing:

Melt butter or good margarine with sugar and honey, the sugar should dissolve, do not boil!
Remove from heat and add ground ginger, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and coriander, a pinch of nutmeg and salt.

You can use spices to your own taste, but cinnamon and ginger are a must. Next you can add either orange zest or orange extract. I add extract, otherwise the zest interferes with the decoration of the gingerbread cookies, but it tastes better with the zest.

We paint it for 3-4 days with sweet glaze . I love making it sour:

Beat the egg whites at low speed, evenly add sweet powder and from one or two pinches to one teaspoon of citric acid (powder), here to taste.
Add powder until the mass becomes snow-white, elastic and the peak hangs a little when you pull out the whisk; at the end of the kneading, add lemon juice: for 1 egg white, 3 drops of lemon juice.

We need this mixture to draw small details and an outline, and if necessary, let’s fill the entire gingerbread with icing, then we outline the outline of this mixture with icing, and to fill it we take this icing and dilute it a little with water or egg white (i.e. we do a ten-second icing, such a gingerbread concept) until, when making a groove with a spoon, it closes in 10-11 seconds, while the glaze must be kneaded very well.

And yet, it’s better to immediately package the icing as needed: for example, I need 3 colors, I take a little from the main one, first in a pastry bag (you can put it in a freezer bag), paint it with dye, set it aside for the outline, and dilute the rest and also put it in a bag . While we are painting the icing, be sure to cover it with a towel soaked in cool water and wrung out. Otherwise, crystals will be created and rendering will be awkward.

There will be questions, I will answer.

I want to say that children really like these gingerbread cookies (and I have four of them :)) I make them aimed at a specific theme for any holiday: New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, etc.

They are stored in a package (I pack it in a baking sleeve) for half a year, which is 100 percent, although I somehow forgot a couple of them on the shelf and stayed for a year, I tried it out of curiosity, it’s very tasty.

How to make gingerbread with icing at home

Gingerbread with icing is a delicious dessert that both adults and children will enjoy. Such sweets are presented as a gift or cake decoration for birthdays, baptisms and any other holidays.

The main advantage of such a dish is not only the pleasant taste and appearance, but also the usual recipe for making gingerbread. At the same time, gingerbread cookies remain fresh for a long time. The longest shelf life under correct conditions is 30 days.

According to this list of ingredients, the glaze will turn out to be snow-white. To add brightness, special multi-colored confectionery sprinkles or sugar are added to the recipe.

Manufacturing does not take much time, but it is recommended to follow the recipe one hundred percent. To create delicious and fragrant ginger cookies you need:

The list of ingredients includes the following products:
Wheat flour 280 g
Sugar 1 tbsp.
Honey 2 tbsp. l.
Chicken egg 1 piece
Soda ½ tsp.
Ground ginger 1 tsp.
Nutmeg 1 pinch
Cinnamon 1 tsp.
To make the glaze you will need:
Egg white 1 piece
Sweet sand 180 g
Starch ½ tsp.
Lemon juice ½ tsp.

Glaze recipe

The glaze makes gingerbread the most delicious and allows you to give it a bright look.

Today in stores you can find glaze in powder form, which is diluted with butter and water to a suitable mixture. But you can create it without the help of others at home.

To make the glaze you need:

Beat one egg white, sweet powder and a little starch into a bowl.
Stir and beat the mixture (using a whisk).
Add lemon juice and extend the function for another 2 minutes.

The result will be a snow-white air mixture. But it has a high thickness, which is more suitable for outlining the contours of cookies. To create the most watery version, the glaze can be diluted with water (a few drops).

If the presence of eggs in the recipe scares you away, then a savory glaze can be prepared using water. To do this you need:

150g sweet powder;
cool water;
lemon juice – 2 tsp;
food coloring to add color.

To create such a syrup, all products are combined to form a viscous mass. If desired, a substance for coloring is added inside.

When the glaze is ready, it should be divided into several parts. Their number depends on the number of colors needed. A specific dye is added to each part. For convenience, stores offer options in watery and powder form.

The finished mixture should be poured into a pastry bag.

Fundamentally! The glaze must dry thoroughly after application.

Unused syrup can be refrigerated in a closed container for several days.

Gingerbread with icing

Description of the dish.

Hello, my dear readers. Now I went to visit a friend, and we baked a very tasty dessert - gingerbread with icing. This dish can be prepared for any holiday, you just need to use your imagination and change the shape of the cookies. It also makes a great addition to everyday tea drinking. The process of creating this culinary masterpiece can be both ordinary and indescribably complex - from ordinary preparations to cool plots, with characters and decorations, where, in addition to the dough, glaze is also used.

Here are some tips to help you make this dish.

It is better to take coarse or medium-ground wheat flour, then the gingerbread cookies will turn out to be the most fragrant and healthy.
In order for the product to remain soft longer and not become stale, replace 10-20% of the flour with starch (it is better to use corn starch).
All ingredients included in the dough must be cool, otherwise the cookies will not turn out crumbly. The flour base should be kneaded quickly, trying not to heat it (even with your hands), preferably using a mixer.
Honey must be watery, not candied (it can be replaced with thick syrup).
The finished dough must be placed in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to evenly distribute the gluten over the entire area of the dough, and taken out in small portions (per 1 sheet). Only the required amount of dough should be taken out from the cold.
The container for making the glaze must be dry and clean, the white must be free of yolk.
In order for the glaze to whip up faster, you need to add a little acid to it, for example, lemon juice.

Now let's move on to the recipe...

Nutritional value of the dish per 100 grams.

Cooking time: 15 minutes (active) + 30 minutes (in the oven) + 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

Number of servings: 1 kg.

Ingredients of the dish.

Dough.

Butter - 110 g.
Wheat flour (1 grade) - 310 g (2 tbsp.)
Corn starch - 40 g (1.5 tbsp).
Testicles - 2 pcs.
Baking powder - 10 g (1 tsp) or soda - 6 g (1/2 tsp) + citric acid - 1 g (at the tip of a knife).
Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg - 3 g each (1/2 tsp).
Honey - 90 g (3 tbsp).
Sugar - 100 g (1/2 tbsp).

Glaze.

Egg - 1 pc.
Sugar - 200-250 g (1 tbsp).
Lemon juice - 20 ml (1 tsp).
Dye - 1 drop.

Recipe of dish.

Let's prepare the ingredients. It is better to sow wheat flour, this will give the dough great airiness. Separate the yolk from the white of 1 egg and put the white in the refrigerator

Let's start making the dough. To do this, finely chop the chilled butter into a mixing bowl, add flour (310 g), starch (40 g), baking powder (10 g), spices (3 g each), honey (90 g), sugar (100 g) and 2 testicles. Place the spiral attachment in the mixer and knead the dough. Or quickly knead with your hands.

Divide the finished mass into several parts (any one for one roll), pack in cellophane and put in the refrigerator for 30-40 minutes.

Now let's start making the glaze. Grind sugar (200-250 g) into powder using a coffee grinder (you can use ready-made store-bought sweet powder).

We take out the bowl with the protein from the refrigerator, add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice (or citric acid on the tip of a knife) to it. Beat the contents of the bowl with a mixer until fluffy, evenly increasing the speed of rotation of the whisks.

If a fluffy foam appears, add sifted sweet powder. You should get a thick, slightly sugared paste (if the mass is watery, add more powder) - this is contour glaze, which we will use to draw borders (along the edge of the cookie or patterns inside it).

Divide the glaze into several parts (according to the number of dyes used).

I will have gingerbread cookies of 2 colors: pink and snow-white, so the icing is divided into two parts. I will leave one without configurations, it is already snow-white. In the second bowl you need to add a drop of dye (I use gel), and stir the mixture well until the color is uniform.

The contour glaze came out in two colors. It is great for drawing small details and contours, but it is not suitable for covering the entire surface, it is very thick.

Let's prepare the glaze to fill the outline. To do this, divide the mass of any color into two parts: one remains thick (we put it immediately in a pastry bag so that it does not dry out), add 1-2 tsp of water to the other and stir.

As a result, I ended up with four glazes: two contour glazes (in bags) and two for covering the surface.

Set the oven to preheat to 180 C (top and bottom).

In the meantime, the flour base has cooled, take it out of the refrigerator, place it on a table dusted with flour or between 2 sheets of parchment (this will help you work with the dough cleanly and neatly). To obtain a layer of uniform thickness (4 mm), you can use a special rolling pin with rings or use the means at hand, for example, slip similar boards of a suitable height under the edges of the rolling pin.

To produce cookies, the dough needs to be rolled out into a layer 3-5 mm wide (for gingerbread cookies 5-8 mm). Next, we cut out the desired shape either with a knife or with the help of special cuttings.

Roll the remaining dough into a tight ball and put it back in the refrigerator.

Transfer the pieces to a parchment-lined baking sheet (if the pieces are very thin, remove excess dough and transfer the paper on which you cut out the shapes to the baking sheet). Bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for about 10 minutes (as soon as the narrowest part of the figure is browned, immediately remove from the oven).

If the surface of the cookies has risen and become wavy, place them (while still hot) on a cutting board (preferably glass) for 5 minutes. During this period of time, the products will cool down and level out, and they will be easier to work with.

We begin applying the decor from the outline, using thick glaze (we make a 1-2 mm hole in a disposable pastry bag).

Then we take the most watery preparation (we also put it in a bag), make a slightly larger cut (about 3-4 mm) and carefully pour it, first along the contour, then into the middle (we fill the unpainted areas with a toothpick).

The freshest glaze can be sprinkled with coconut flakes, beads and other decorative elements, or you can wait until it sets slightly and apply the desired pattern on top of it with the thickest consistency. Within 15 minutes, at a thickness of 1 mm, the glaze will harden, and you can transfer the cookies to a plate or into gift boxes.

You can store gingerbread cookies with icing in closed boxes or simply on the table for 2 weeks.

Below is a video of this delicious dish being made.

Gingerbread with icing

On the way to perfect gingerbread
Approximately representative gingerbread cookies in just an hour and a half
It's not the same without the glaze!
Option on the water
Protein option

It’s hard to imagine a more atmospheric sweet than gingerbread with glaze: just look at the photo to feel that spicy smell, hear the delicious crunch and get into the holiday spirit. Naturally, such cookies are incredibly popular in the winter, and in the summer you will get no less pleasure from tea with fragrant homemade gingerbread. All that's left to do is figure out how to make this culinary ambition a reality!

On the way to perfect gingerbread

When it comes to baking, there are things that are better to know before you even go to the store for ingredients, so that you are mentally prepared for the pitfalls and learn the basics of baking technology. Your gingerbread cookies will definitely be a hit if you can follow these 3 rules:

1. The ingredients must be high quality

We know that this truth is already textbook, but with baked goods the risk of seeing it in action is much higher than with soups or main courses. As for flour, eggs and sugar, it’s hard to go wrong with them: even cheap brands will completely cope with the task. But it is better to choose tested butter. It is believed that true butter cannot have a fat content below 82.5%, so you will have to pay a little extra for the taste and texture of your gingerbread cookies.

2. You need to work with the dough quickly

After you take the finished dough out of the refrigerator, it is better not to stretch the rubber: if you are distracted or simply roll out and cut out the gingerbread for a very long time, the butter will begin to melt and the dough may float. In this regard, in the summer it is slightly more difficult to prepare ginger cookies, because you will have to act even faster.

Tip: When you remove the dough from the refrigerator, immediately turn on the oven to preheat. Did you cut out the cookies first and then turn on the oven? The outline will float and the cookies will not come out very good.

3. You will have to act according to the situation

No matter how hard you try to follow the recipe, the chance of getting a 100% copy of what the creator came out with is negligible. Quite a slight difference in proportions, a changed brand of one of the ingredients or a different oven - and such a painstakingly written recipe will leave you alone with cookies spreading on the baking sheet or dough crumbling when rolling out. These nasty moments can really be avoided if you focus on the texture and are not afraid to enter your configurations into the recipe. Is the dough liquid and very sticky? Add a little flour. Is the dough falling apart and not wanting to come together into a ball? Mix a little oil into it. Be bold and trust your own culinary intuition!

Approximately representative gingerbread cookies in just an hour and a half

If you think that an hour and a half is a long time, let us remind you that usually the dough spends about 2 hours just in the refrigerator, not to mention the labor-intensive rolling out or thoroughly mixing the ingredients. How to meet it in the shortest possible time, what ingredients to buy, and how to create everything correctly? Let's tell you in order.

What will be useful?

250 g flour (plus a little for adjustment),
100 g butter,
1 testicle,
50 g honey,
100 g sugar,
1 tsp baking powder,
2 tsp ground ginger,
1 tsp cinnamon,
a pinch of nutmeg.

Secret: In all the photos, the gingerbread cookies are brown, but it is very difficult to achieve that color without coloring. Usually a little cocoa is added to cookies or brown sugar is used instead of snow-white - this way the color will be the most saturated. Although the composition of honey + cinnamon gives a wonderful golden color that increases as it cools, we recommend preparing the first batch without coloring.

What to create?

The oil must be very soft, but not watery, so you won’t be able to use a microwave or water bath. It is better to leave it to warm up at room temperature for an hour or so in advance.
If the honey is not watery, you need to melt it in a water bath. You can do it in the microwave, just make sure it doesn’t boil.
Now grind the butter and sugar with a fork, pour the egg and honey into the mixture and mix. Honey should not be hot, otherwise the egg will curl!
Mix flour, baking powder and spices separately. We leave the sifting to your discretion: if you carefully mix the ingredients, the difference in the taste of the finished gingerbread cookies will be visible only to special connoisseurs.
Mix the dry mixture evenly into the oil mixture until large pellets form. It’s quite comfortable to do this with a fork rather than a mixer, although here you have to decide on your own preferences.
Large crumbs should effortlessly gather into a ball, which will slightly resemble marzipan in the mixture. If the dough crumbles or spills, do not be afraid to deviate from the recipe by adding a little butter or flour.

Now we make a pancake out of the dough, wrap it in film and put it in the refrigerator for 40 minutes. In this form, the dough will cool faster and it will be easier to roll it out. By the way, if there is a lot of dough, it can be stored in the freezer for several months!
After 40 minutes the dough can be rolled out. Ideally, this is done between two sheets of baking paper, but the good old method of flouring the rolling pin and countertop will also work. The thickness of our gingerbread cookies is approximately half a centimeter.
We cut out the cookies using a mold, remove the excess dough, transfer the blanks onto baking paper using a knife and repeat the rolling again with the remaining dough. It may take 4 or 5 such passes until all the prepared dough is utilized. By the way, do not place the cookies too tightly, because in the oven they will increase slightly in size.
The baking tray with the cookies is placed in a perfectly preheated oven at 180˚, where they are baked for 5 to 12 minutes: the time depends very much on the thickness of the gingerbread and your preferences for softness or crispiness. In general, as soon as the edges begin to brown, the cookies are ready and can be removed.

Right out of the oven, the baked goods are really very similar to fluffy and soft gingerbread cookies, but as they cool, the cookies settle and harden slightly, becoming similar to cookies. So, when you want to keep the cookies in the oven for an extra 2-3 minutes, keep in mind that with tea, you may not be eating gingerbread, but actually a cracker.

It's not the same without the glaze!

Gingerbread cookies are excellent in their pure form, but you must agree that gingerbread cookies painted with colored icing look much more intriguing, and from time to time it seems that such decoration makes them even tastier. Naturally, ready-made glaze can be purchased at the store, but since we are already involved in home cooking, we suggest going to the end and making the glaze with your own hands, well, our little master class will help you with this.

Option on the water

Worried about raw eggs? Then use glaze on water! It may not be as boiling white as on a testicle, but it is 100% harmless and no less tasty!

What will be useful?

150 g sweet powder.
2 tsp lemon juice for a snow-white paste or any other juice to add a light color.
Slightly cool water.
Food coloring optional.

What to create?

The main principle here is: a lot of powder - not a lot of water. Just carefully add the juice and water in small portions until the powder forms a sticky mass. Kneading can take a lot of effort and time, because soaking a glass of powder with a few drops of water is not so easy. You can breathe a sigh of relief when a drop of glaze holds its shape without spreading.

Protein option

The glaze on the whites comes out white, and it will require a little more effort from you. But if you are not too lazy to carry out this experiment, the cookies will turn out simply bewitching, like from the pages of culinary magazines!

What will be useful?

150 g sweet powder.
1 testicle.
Food coloring optional.

What to create?

Separate the white from the yolk using any method known to you. The main thing is that the yolk does not get into our mixture. Now pour the powder evenly into the egg whites, beating with a mixer at high speed. When a drop of glaze holds its shape, you can begin painting.

Tip: If you want to create a fill rather than an outline, simply make the glaze as watery as possible. Just keep in mind that the filling takes longer to dry than the contour, and it is better to leave such cookies to dry overnight (that is, in the dark) , especially if you plan to transport them.

Well, all that remains is to put the icing in a special confectionery bag or an ordinary plastic bag, cut off the spout and give free rein to your imagination. Successful tests for you and delicious gingerbread!