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This Gingerbread Man Recipe is the perfect recipe for the holiday season! Fragrant and scented with spices such as ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg and nicely decorated with icing, they are the iconic biscuits of the Christmas holidays, now known all over the world. They are very loved by children, not only because they are delicious biscuits, but also because they are fun to decorate and even to hang on your Christmas tree, if they are not devoured first!
The History of Gingerbread
There are so many Christmas cookies, but the gingerbread is rooted practically all over the world, in the form of cakes, loaves, or biscuits. There are so many recipes, when you hear gingerbread, “pan di zenzero” or even marzipan (not to be confused with the Sicilian almond recipe), we’re talking about the same thing. In medieval England, the word gingerbread referred to preserved ginger. It did not refer to the many sweets we know today, which are based on ginger mixed with honey or molasses.
Ginger is a root that was originally cultivated in China. It reached England via the Silk Road, a route that connected Europe with all of Asia through various trade routes. It was used to mask the strong flavors of preserved foods. It was also used in medicine.
Thanks to the expansion of this spice, each country soon developed its own recipe for gingerbread, with the discovery of America the British brought it to the new world.
Also worth mentioning are the beautiful gingerbread houses, invented in Germany in the 16th century, decorated with icing and all kinds of sweets. Their fame increased after being mentioned in the famous story of Hansel and Gretel by the Brothers Grimm.
Make Gingerbread Man Recipe In A Best Way
Making gingerbread man recipes really easy. You can make it by hand, with a mixer, or even in a food processor. It’s a very soft dough that needs to be worked very cold. If it’s very humid, don’t be afraid to flour the dough when rolling it out with the rolling pin, and don’t forget to cover your working surface. Otherwise, you won’t be able to remove them to put them in the pan. When Gingerbread Man Recipe are cooked, they will still be soft and delicate, so place them on a wire rack to cool, using a spatula to support them. As they cool, the cookies will firm up and become crispy.
How To Make Gingerbread Men Recipe
In a bowl mix the dry ingredients, flour with spices, baking soda and salt. In the bowl of the mixer, beat the butter with the brown sugar using the paddle attachment. When you have a nice creamy mixture, add the molasses, egg, and vanilla. Once you have a homogeneous dough, wrap it in plastic wrap. Let it rest in the refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight. I recommend dividing the dough in half. This way, when it’s time to make the cookies, you don’t have too much dough to work with, and it doesn’t get too hot.
When it’s time to make the cookies, preheat the oven to 175 degrees. Roll out the dough. Dust the work surface with a light layer of flour and roll out the dough with a rolling pin until you have a sheet that is a little more than half an inch thick.
Now take the pastry cutter shaped like a little man or other Christmassy shapes and start cutting the dough. Of course, this gingerbread man recipe does not only apply to man-shaped gingerbread! You can also use other shapes to make gingerbread cookies. Try snow crystal, candy cane, Santa Claus, or elf hat shapes. Once cut, place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, bake for 10 minutes, remove from the oven and let cool on a rack.
Preparing the gingerbread icing is easy: sift the powdered sugar with the cream of tartar, mix with the egg whites and add the vanilla extract. Add a little water until you get the right consistency. Pipe the icing into a piping bag with a fine, smooth nozzle, or make a piping bag with parchment paper, and when the cookies are cool, decorate them as you wish. Use food coloring to color the frosting, gumdrops, or silver or gold beads that you can attach to the frosting itself to create a unique decoration for each cookie.
As well as gingerbread men recipe, there are other typical Christmas sweets. Discover other recipes dedicated to Christmas!
How To Store Gingerbread Men Recipe
Gingerbread biscuits are very delicate and sensitive to moisture. Store them in a tightly closed biscuit jar or zip-lock bag, to remove as much of the air as possible.
Gingerbread Man Recipe For Christmas
Attrezzature
- Rolling Pin
- Baking Paper
- Cookie Cutters in the shape of a gingerbread man or other Christmas shape
Ingredienti
- 360 g Pastry Flour
- 6 g Baking Soda
- 1 Egg
- 170 g Butter at room temperature
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 150 tsp Cane Sugar
- 118 g Molasses
- ¼ tsp Cloves chopped (3-4 cloves)
- 2 g Cinnamon
- 1 g Nutmeg
- 4 g Ginger
- ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
Icing
- 2 Egg Whites
- 455 g Powdered Sugar
- ¼ tsp Cremor Tartar
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 – 4 tsp Water
- Natural Red Coloring
- Natural Yellow Coloring
- Natural Green Dye
- Natural Blue Dye
Istruzioni
- Place 360 g Pastry Flour, 6 g Baking Soda, 150 tsp Cane Sugar, ¼ tsp Salt, 118 g Molasses and the spices: ¼ tsp Cloves, 2 g Cinnamon, 1 g Nutmeg, 4 g Ginger in a mixer. Finally, add 170 g Butter cut into small pieces and ½ tsp Vanilla Extract. Blend until you have a sandy mixture.
- Pour it onto a pastry board, creating a fountain, where you will add 1 Egg. Start kneading the dough, when it is well mixed form a ball, wrap it in transparent wrap and put it to rest for half an hour in the refrigerator.
- Take some dough and start rolling it out, the thickness should not exceed 1 cm. Once the dough is rolled out, cut it out with a little man shape or other Christmas-themed shapes.
- Place in a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and bake for 17 to 20 minutes, depending on the size of the biscuits.
- Once baked they will still be soft, gently set them to cool on a wire rack. Once cool, they will “solidify.”
Icing
- In a bowl, sift together 455 g Powdered Sugar, and a ¼ tsp Cremor Tartar.
- Add 1 tsp Vanilla Extract, the 2 Egg Whites and adjust with 2 – 4 tsp Water, until the desired consistency is achieved.
- Once it is ready, divide it and color it as desired.
Note
Nutrizione
Le informazioni nutrizionali mostrate sono una stima fornita da un calcolatore nutrizionale online. Non deve essere considerato un sostituto del consiglio di un nutrizionista professionista.