My gingerbread recipe originally came from one of my mother’s cookbooks, but has since been tweaked so as to be more palatable. Instead of the usual trio of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves, my spice blend involves ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and cardamom. I use a quarter-cup each of brown and muscovado sugar for less sweetness and to bring out the aroma of the spices. Molasses and margarine are both non-negotiable, irreplaceable ingredients: margarine – not butter – makes for tender cookies and molasses give the finished product its lovely dark color.
Decorated cookies are always cute, but aren’t always eaten. The frosting I used – a molten, fondue-like blend of white and milk chocolates – ensures that people won’t resist nibbling these cookies no matter how cute they look.
Gingerbread Cutouts
- 2-1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup margarine
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup muscovado sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice
- 75 grams white chocolate
- 25 grams milk chocolate
- sugar dragees
- cake decorating gel
Cream the margarine till fluffy. Add half the flour, the egg, molasses, sugars, spices, vinegar, baking powder, and baking soda. Mix until well combined, then add the remaining flour and mix to form a malleable dough. Transfer the dough to a covered container and freeze for about thirty minutes.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees / Gas Mark 5. Quarter the dough and roll out to about a half-inch thickness on a floured surface. Cut out shapes and set them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Gather the scraps and keep rolling and cutting out cookies until all the dough has been used up. Bake for five minutes; cool on a rack.
In a heatproof bowl, blitz the white and milk chocolates in a microwave from 45 seconds to about a minute and a half. Still till well combined. Spread the resulting fondue onto the cookies; decorate with dragees and decorating gel.
Makes approximately six dozen cookies.
May I just say that this is a great project to do with kids – and, of course, with kids at heart.
