Preheat oven to 375°F (191°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and the Redpath® Dark Brown Sugar until thoroughly blended.
Add the egg and pure vanilla extract. Mix until fully incorporated into the butter mixture, about 1 minute.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, salt, nutmeg, and baking powder until thoroughly mixed. On low speed, add half of the dry ingredients to the bowl until just combined. Add the remaining dry mixture. Mix until it forms a dough, being careful to not over-mix.
Transfer dough onto a flat work surface and form into a flat disc. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
When ready to use, allow dough to come to room temperature, about 10 minutes.
Place dough between 2 sheets of lightly floured parchment. Roll to a ⅛- to ¼-inch thickness. Using desired cookie cutter, cut out cookies. Scraps can be gathered, rerolled and cut.
Transfer cookies onto prepared baking sheet. Place cookies into the fridge or freezer for 10 minutes to chill before baking.. Place cookies into the preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly golden in colour.
Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
To Make the Royal Icing:
In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together Redpath® Icing Sugar, meringue powder and salt. Add water and vanilla extract and mix on medium-low speed until Royal Icing is fluffy and stiff peaks form.
To reach a flooding consistency, add water 1 tablespoon at a time.
Test to see if the icing is ready for decorating by pulling a knife through. Count how long it takes for the icing to collapse. It should fall in 10 seconds. If your icing is too thick, add water; if it is too runny, add more icing sugar. Keep Royal Icing in airtight container up to 2 weeks.
Gingerbread Spiced Cookies
Ingredients
For the GINGERBREAD SPICED COOKIES:
1 cup butter
¾ cup Redpath® Dark Brown Sugar, packed
1 egg, room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
zest from 1 navel orange
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon baking powder
For the ROYAL ICING:
8 cups Redpath® Icing Sugar
¼ cup of meringue powder
pinch of kosher salt
¾ cup of water
1 tablespoon of pure vanilla extract
Directions
To Make The Cookies:
Preheat oven to 375°F (191°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and the Redpath® Dark Brown Sugar until thoroughly blended.
Add the egg and pure vanilla extract. Mix until fully incorporated into the butter mixture, about 1 minute.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, salt, nutmeg, and baking powder until thoroughly mixed. On low speed, add half of the dry ingredients to the bowl until just combined. Add the remaining dry mixture. Mix until it forms a dough, being careful to not over-mix.
Transfer dough onto a flat work surface and form into a flat disc. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
When ready to use, allow dough to come to room temperature, about 10 minutes.
Place dough between 2 sheets of lightly floured parchment. Roll to a ⅛- to ¼-inch thickness. Using desired cookie cutter, cut out cookies. Scraps can be gathered, rerolled and cut.
Transfer cookies onto prepared baking sheet. Place cookies into the fridge or freezer for 10 minutes to chill before baking.. Place cookies into the preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly golden in colour.
Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
To Make the Royal Icing:
In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together Redpath® Icing Sugar, meringue powder and salt. Add water and vanilla extract and mix on medium-low speed until Royal Icing is fluffy and stiff peaks form.
To reach a flooding consistency, add water 1 tablespoon at a time.
Test to see if the icing is ready for decorating by pulling a knife through. Count how long it takes for the icing to collapse. It should fall in 10 seconds. If your icing is too thick, add water; if it is too runny, add more icing sugar. Keep Royal Icing in airtight container up to 2 weeks.
Gingerbread Spiced Cookies
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Rich, firm cookies flavoured with dark brown sugar and assorted freshly ground spices…
GINGERBREAD SPICED COOKIES are a always a holiday favourite!
This post for Gingerbread Spiced Cookies is brought to you by our friends at Redpath Sugar. Visit www.redpathsugar.com for more holiday baking ideas.
We’re happy to share this recipe for GINGERBREAD SPICED COOKIES from our friends at Redpath Sugar. We met with them back in the spring to talk about ideas for the holidays (I know, it sounds weird to meet so early in the year, but that’s how we roll. It’s also my approach to the holidays – best to plan ahead).
During our chat, I got all nostalgic, remembering some of the things I enjoy most about this time of year: the way the house and cottage smells when I’m baking holiday treats, the quality time spent with loved ones, and how the trinkets and baubles placed around the house make it feel so warm and inviting. But one of my favourite things is giving thoughtful gifts to my loved ones that really mean something to them.
That’s when this brilliant idea struck me – let’s make holiday memories with this GINGERBREAD SPICED COOKIE recipe! As mentioned, best to plan ahead, so you can follow my lead and make this holiday cookie recipe straight away to get into the holiday spirit.
Here are a few things to keep in mind as you embark on this worthy endeavor.
COOKIE LOVE!
I’ve made this recipe a number of times now, and it works perfectly every time. Let’s send out hugs and thanks to the culinary team at Redpath Sugar for creating a recipe that’s straightforward and easy too. Yay!
The photo of the required ingredients says it all; nothing unusual or tough to find. If you’re like me, you probably already have all of these ingredients in the pantry. Baker’s tip: ensure your ingredients are all at room temperature before you begin.
I will say, the one thing I find most interesting about this recipe is that it’s made without molasses. That in itself gets my nod of approval as there’s no sticky, goopy cartons and messy cleanup. Brilliant!
SUGAR IS SWEET!
Using Redpath Dark Brown Sugar in this recipe is what gives the cookies their rich, caramel flavour. You can swap it out for Redpath Golden Yellow Sugar to make a lighter cookie, but I like the traditional flavours that come from the brown sugar.
Very important – as indicated in the recipe, the sugar needs to be packed. Brown sugar is very soft and crumbly, so you need to place some into the measure and pack it down. Continue to pack the dry measurement cup until you reach the quantity. You may have to crumble it a bit before creaming it with the butter.
ZESTY SPICES
The ground spices used in this recipe give these cookies a wonderful flavour profile. I also add a bit of orange zest into the dough and think it gives the cookies a certain sumthin’ sumthin’. Let us know what you think about that addition by dropping us a comment at the bottom of this post.
The thing I appreciate most about the spices and orange zest combination is the fragrance. This ties back to one of our objectives in using this traditional spice cookie recipe. Your holiday home will smell phenomenal when you make these!
CHILL OUT
There will be two steps to this GINGERBREAD SPICED COOKIE recipe where you just need to chill out. Well, actually the dough needs to chill but heck, you need a break too! Make sure to wrap and chill the dough for one hour after making it.
The Redpath team also suggests that we chill the cut cookies for 10 minutes before placing them into the oven to bake. This helps the cookies keep their shape and prevents spreading. I never skip these two steps and my cookies turn out perfectly each and every time.
MAKING THE CUT!
Using traditional holiday motif cookie cutters, we cut the dough into various shapes and sizes. You can do gingerbread women, trees, bells, bows – you name it. We also used two different sizes of fluted-edged squares, which I’ll explain more about in a bit.
Baking the cut cookies is a simple step, but stay close to your oven the first time you make the recipe. Because the thickness of the cookies and oven temperatures may vary, just keep an eye on things when you get to the 10-minute mark. Pull the cookies out when the edges get golden brown.
ROYAL ICING
We so enjoyed the way this recipe performed, we partnered it with Redpath’s Royal Icing. Like the cookie recipe itself, the icing is simple and straightforward. You’ll need Redpath Icing Sugar to make it, and I picked up a few bags because icing sugar is also perfect for making sweet glazes, dusting cakes and rolling cookies. Always a good idea to have back-up on hand for the holidays.
We used different food colour pastes to tint the snow-white royal icing. This was one of the recipes we shared during our visit to Christmas in November, and in the very first class, a savvy, artsy lady reminded me about the basic colour principles, “All you need are the primary colours, Nik, because then you can blend all the other colours yourself!” Thank you savvy, artsy lady, Nik loves YOU!
PIPE UP!
Decorating these cookies is a labour of love, but it’s also a golden opportunity to spend quality time with loved ones. Call in your kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, siblings, friends and other family members to help. The more the merrier!
After tinting the Royal Icing, I fitted piping bags with different nibs and filled each with a different colour icing. Then I laid out a row of cookies and started applying the icing one colour at a time. I found this method worked best, and the cookies kind of come to life as I added each consecutive colour.
Nik’s tip: There will be mistakes but who cares? We’re together and we’re having fun!
SPARKLING SPARKLE!
Once you start decorating your cookies you may find yourself feeling quite accomplished. Since it is the holidays and all, why not take your cookie decorating to the next level and add sparkles and shiny things too? Look for coloured sparkle sugar and silver dragées (those little silver balls). They’ll add interest and whimsy to your finished cookies.
MAKING MEMORIES
We envisioned four different ways of using these cookies to make holiday memories. First, the decorated cookies can be added to your holiday baking trays and platters. You can also assemble the cookies in fancy bags or boxes and give them as gifts. They’ll look fabulously festive.
Second idea is to poke holes into some of the cookies before baking them. After they’ve been decorated, you can run a little ribbon through the hole like we did – instant tree or garland ornament!
Third idea is about those smaller, square-shaped cookies. Write holiday messages on them – Peace! Joy! Love! XO! – to express your sentiments to loved ones through cookies!
Finally, the larger square-shaped cookies ended up being placed in a position of honour at our holiday table. How wonderful to make homemade, edible place cards? This idea will sit well with all your friends and family.
Don’t forget to visit WATC for additional holiday recipes like our popular ROAST GOOSE, our DRY-BRINED TURKEY and our many salads and sides.
Well, hopefully, we’ve inspired you to try this recipe. GINGERBREAD SPICED COOKIES are memories in the making!
Cook Mode Use cook mode to keep your screen on while cooking.
Ingredients
For the GINGERBREAD SPICED COOKIES:
1 cup butter
¾ cup Redpath® Dark Brown Sugar, packed
1 egg, room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
zest from 1 navel orange
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon baking powder
For the ROYAL ICING:
8 cups Redpath® Icing Sugar
¼ cup of meringue powder
pinch of kosher salt
¾ cup of water
1 tablespoon of pure vanilla extract
Directions
To Make The Cookies:
Preheat oven to 375°F (191°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and the Redpath® Dark Brown Sugar until thoroughly blended.
Add the egg and pure vanilla extract. Mix until fully incorporated into the butter mixture, about 1 minute.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, salt, nutmeg, and baking powder until thoroughly mixed. On low speed, add half of the dry ingredients to the bowl until just combined. Add the remaining dry mixture. Mix until it forms a dough, being careful to not over-mix.
Transfer dough onto a flat work surface and form into a flat disc. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
When ready to use, allow dough to come to room temperature, about 10 minutes.
Place dough between 2 sheets of lightly floured parchment. Roll to a ⅛- to ¼-inch thickness. Using desired cookie cutter, cut out cookies. Scraps can be gathered, rerolled and cut.
Transfer cookies onto prepared baking sheet. Place cookies into the fridge or freezer for 10 minutes to chill before baking.. Place cookies into the preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly golden in colour.
Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
To Make the Royal Icing:
In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together Redpath® Icing Sugar, meringue powder and salt. Add water and vanilla extract and mix on medium-low speed until Royal Icing is fluffy and stiff peaks form.
To reach a flooding consistency, add water 1 tablespoon at a time.
Test to see if the icing is ready for decorating by pulling a knife through. Count how long it takes for the icing to collapse. It should fall in 10 seconds. If your icing is too thick, add water; if it is too runny, add more icing sugar. Keep Royal Icing in airtight container up to 2 weeks.
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