GINGERBREAD PEOPLE HOLIDAY COOKIE PROJECTS: WHITE SNOWFLAKES, DREIDEL TRIOS AND ORNAMENTS
Whether you're decorating a tree, a room or a table during the holidays, these long-lasting cookies bring sparkle, color and the feeling of warmth that no store-bought ornament can provide into your house. Making them is an ideal Saturday project to usher in the holidays. String the finished cookies on stout wire and run them along your banisters, mantels, or coil them up into a wreath or centerpiece. Light candles to catch the twinkle in the sugar crystals. One batch of dough will give you about two dozen cookies; if you plan to double the recipe, make two separate batches. You can add color to the cookies by coloring the icing or by using white icing, then dusting the icing with colored sugar before it sets. After it sets, knock off the excess. The latter gives a prettier, more sparkly effect. Strangely, both cold milk and hot whiskey toddies go perfectly with spicy gingerbread. I heard of a guy who will make you any shaped cookie cutter you want out of copper and you can order them online.
Provided by Food Network
Categories dessert
Time 55m
Yield 24 servings
Number Of Ingredients 18
Steps:
- Make the Gingerbread: In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and mix. Add the eggs and mix. Add the molasses and vanilla and mix.
- Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves together. Working in batches and mixing after each addition until just combined, add the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture. Shape the dough into a thick disk, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate 1 to 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Grease 1 or 2 cookie sheets. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out 1/4-inch thick and cut out with desired cookie cutters.
- To make the Royal Icing: In a mixer, blend the confectioners' sugar, milk, and egg white together. Add more sugar to get a pipe-able consistency.
- To make Gingerbread Men and Women: Use gingerbread man and woman cookie cutters and cut out the cookies, re-rolling the scraps as needed. Decorate them with raisins and white chocolate chips for eyes, nose, mouth, and buttons down the front. Bake until firm, 8 to 10 minutes, and let cool on the pan.
- Meanwhile, add some festive colors to your icing with food coloring and lay out colored sugars in small glass bowls with spoons. Using a pastry bag fitted with the smallest plain tip, pipe a few colorful borders or white borders and coat with sanding sugar. When set, add more lines of icing in white.
- To make snowflakes: Use a snowflake-shaped cookie cutter to cut out the cookies, re-rolling the scraps as needed. If you plan to hang the cookies, use a toothpick to make holes in the cookies about 1/8-inch wide, keeping in mind that the holes will shrink as the cookies bake and puff up a bit. Bake until firm, 8 to 10 minutes, and let cool on the pan. Using only white icing and a pastry bag fitted with the smallest plain tip, pipe thin lines from the center of the cookie out to the points, like spokes of a wheel. Connect the spokes with thin lines between them, making a spiderweb effect to give it the look of a snowflake. Let the icing harden before threading the cookies onto wire, string, or yarn for hanging.
- To make ornaments: Use any holiday-themed cookie cutter to cut out the cookies, re-rolling the scraps as needed. If you plan to hang the cookies, use a toothpick to make holes in the cookies about 1/8-inch wide, keeping in mind that the holes will shrink as the cookies bake and puff up a bit. Bake until firm, 8 to 10 minutes, and let cool on the pan. Meanwhile, color some of your icing in festive colors with food coloring, or use colored sugars. Using a pastry bag fitted with the smallest plain tip, pipe a few colorful borders and decorations on the cookies. When set, add more lines of icing in white. Let the icing harden before threading the cookies onto wire, string, or yarn for hanging.
- To make dreidel trios: Use a dreidel cookie cutter and cut out 3 cookies. Lay 1 on a greased sheet pan. Fanning out at an angle, with the handles overlapping at the top, lay 2 more dreidels next to the first one (it will look like a paper-doll effect). The handle is now 3 layers thick; press on it gently to thin it slightly and make it larger. Repeat with the remaining dough, re-rolling the scraps as needed.
- If you plan to hang the cookies, use a toothpick to make a hole in the cookies about 1/8-inch wide, keeping in mind that the hole will shrink as the cookies bake and puff up a bit. Bake until firm, 8 to 10 minutes, and let cool on the pan. Color some of your icing blue with food coloring, or use blue colored sugar and white icing together. Using a pastry bag fitted with a small plain tip, pipe Hebrew letters or stars of David on the cookies' faces. Let the icing harden before threading the cookies onto wire, string, or yarn for hanging.
GINGERBREAD CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS
These look and smell like real gingerbread, but are not edible! They are extremely cute ornaments for the tree, and can be decorated with acrylic paint once they are dry! They harden up very well, and will last for years if cared for. I have so many good memories of taking out the tin of these on Christmas, and having the house smell like gingerbread instantly while trimming the tree! Note: Prep time includes cooling time before baking, as well as hardening time after baking.
Provided by PianoCook
Categories Winter
Time P2DT20m
Yield 30-40 cookies
Number Of Ingredients 9
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Beat shortening and sugar together in a large bowl. Stir in molasses.
- Sift baking soda, ground cloves, ginger, cinnamon and flour together in a large bowl. Stir this mixture plus water into the sugar and shortening mixture, alternately adding the water and baking soda mixture to the shortening mixture.
- Stir until mixed thoroughly and refrigerate 6-8 hours.
- Cut dough into three equal pieces, knead each piece lightly and then use a rolling pin to roll out each piece to a 1/4-inch thickness.
- Use holiday cookie cutters made in the shapes of gingerbread people and houses to cut shapes out of the dough.
- Use a medium- to large-sized drinking straw or the end of a wooden chopstick to make a hole at the top of each shape. *Tip: make sure to really make a sizable hole (bigger than you think you need), as these do puff up in the cooking process, making the hole shrink.
- Put cookies on cookie sheets and bake for about 20 minutes. Turn oven off and allow cookies to cool in the oven. This will help harden the cookies.
- Place cookies on racks to completely harden. Place racks in a cool, dry place and let sit for two to three days.
- Coat cookies with clear acrylic or varnish and allow cookies to dry thoroughly.
- Paint cookies with acrylic paints as desired. Allow paint to dry thoroughly.
- Thread a 5- to 6-inch length of narrow ribbon or cording through the hole at the top of each ornament. You may have to use a toothpick to chip a little bit of cookie out of the hole if it has closed up a bit, before threading with ribbon. Knot ends and hang ornaments.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 188.5, Fat 2.9, SaturatedFat 0.7, Sodium 89.3, Carbohydrate 37.6, Fiber 0.9, Sugar 13, Protein 3
GINGERBREAD HOUSE AND ORNAMENTS
Provided by Food Network
Time 8h45m
Yield 12 ornaments
Number Of Ingredients 16
Steps:
- For Honey Dough:
- In a large saucepan, bring the honey to a boil over medium heat. Immediately remove the pan from the heat. Pour the honey into the large bowl of a stand mixer and slowly add the bread flour, using a bread hook. Continue mixing until dough is smooth, about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Allow the dough to cool, then wrap with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature. This dough needs to set up overnight at least, but can rest up to 2 months.
- For Spice Dough:
- Dissolve the baker's ammonia in the water in a large mixing bowl of a stand mixer. Add the eggs and corn syrup and mix until combined.
- Sift the flour and spices in a separate large mixing bowl and gradually add the flour mixture to the wet mixture using a bread hook on the electric mixer. The dough will become very stiff; do not overmix, simply incorporate the flour.
- Cut the honey dough into 3 portions and add it into the spice dough, 1 portion at a time. You need to make sure that the honey dough and spice dough's are completely combined. To make sure that they are, you must knead the dough by hand in a fold-and-press motion on a lightly floured work surface. This will take a long time, but is totally necessary.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Divide dough into 4 equal portions. Lightly flour your work surface and work with 1 portion at a time. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out until it's about 1/4-inch thick. While rolling, flour the work surface and rolling pin, as needed.
- Using your gingerbread house template, cut out desired shapes with a floured butter knife. Transfer the shapes to a greased cookie sheet or sheets, using a large floured spatula, placing them 1-inch apart. Reroll the scraps to make the additional cookies or decorations used for the gingerbread house.
- Lightly brush dough with milk and bake until firm to the touch in the center and the edges begin to darken, 10 to 14 minutes. If the dough begins to bubble at all, pierce it with a toothpick to remove the air, and then carefully smooth out the surface. Remove the house pieces from the oven and allow to completely cool on the cookie sheet.
- For Royal Icing:
- Do not begin to make the icing until the gingerbread house pieces are completely cooled and you are prepared to assemble the house.
- Beat the egg whites until light and fluffy, about 5 to 7 minutes, in a large mixing bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed.
- Gradually add the confectioners' sugar and cream of tartar; beat until combined.
- Add the lemon juice and beat on high until the mixture forms stiff, glossy peaks, at least 5 to 7 minutes.
- When finished, cover the icing with plastic wrap, making sure that the wrap touches the icing completely.
- For Gingerbread House:
- Cut out a large cardboard base that is large enough for your gingerbread house and strong enough to hold the weight. Cover it with aluminum foil or wrapping paper.
- Spoon some of the royal icing into a pastry bag fitted with 1/4 to 3/8-inch diameter tip. Keep the remaining icing covered so it does not dry out.
- Assemble the walls of the house, piping thick lines of the icing onto the sides of the walls that meet. Use cans of food to support the walls when drying. If the edges of the pieces are not straight, you will need to cut them. If they are not smooth, you can run a nutmeg grater over the edge to smooth it out. Allow the icing to dry completely before attaching the roof pieces.
- Once the roof is secured and the icing is dry, you may decorate the house with the remaining icing, cookies and candies as desired.
- Cook's Notes:
- You will need to set aside a few days to make the house. The honey dough needs to rest overnight. Once the gingerbread pieces are baked, we suggest you allow them to cool for at least 4 hours. Once they are cooled completely, you can assemble the house. Allow the icing to totally dry and harden, then decorate the house as desired.
- Baker's ammonia is also known as ammonium carbonate, and can be found at drugstores. It must be finely ground. You may notice an odor of ammonia while baking, but this will quickly dissipate and will not have an odor or taste when completed.
- When preparing the royal icing, you MUST make sure that the bowl and all utensils used are free from any traces of grease. The smallest trace of grease will not allow the icing to firm up.
- When you are deciding on a gingerbread house template, please keep in mind that it cannot be larger than the cookie sheet you are using to bake the pieces.
- When combining the honey dough and spice dough, it is very important that you combine them completely. Otherwise, the house pieces will cook uneven and the flavor will not be consistent. This process will require a lot of "elbow grease" when combining. Because the dough is so thick, you will need to do it by hand.
GINGERBREAD CRAFT DOUGH / ORNAMENTS
My co-worker Amy is talented in all things craftsy: basket-making, soaps (the real kind, with lye!) and this is her recipe for gingerbread craft dough for holiday ornaments, etc. You can protect them with clearcoat to save for future holidays, but this will mask the delicious spicy fragrance, so I'd just make more next year and enjoy the aroma this year. Prep time includes drying time and yield depends on the size of your cookie cutters. And please don't eat them!
Provided by EdsGirlAngie
Categories Kid Friendly
Time P4DT30m
Yield 6-10 serving(s)
Number Of Ingredients 9
Steps:
- Cream together shortening and sugar until light and fluffy; stir in molasses.
- Sift dry ingredients together, then stir into the shortening mixture in 3 parts, alternating with 1/4 cup water each time.
- Dough will be stiff.
- Refrigerate overnight.
- The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Cut the dough into 3 pieces and knead to warm slightly then roll out each piece about 1/4-inch thick.
- Cut into desired shapes; use a straw to make a hole at the top if you're making an ornament.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.
- Remove to cooling rack and let dry about 3 days.
- Decorate as desired.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 471.2, Fat 7.2, SaturatedFat 1.8, Sodium 223.3, Carbohydrate 94, Fiber 2.3, Sugar 32.5, Protein 7.6
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