Miscellaneous Ginger Desserts

for all your wintry dessert needs!

Ginger Snaps

sugary thin & crisp cookies great for a general everyday snack

Recipe:

3/4 cup butter

2 cups sugar + extra sugar for rolling

2 well-beaten eggs

1/2 cup molasses

2 tsp vinegar

3 3/4 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

Preheat oven to 325°

Grease a cookie sheet

Cream butter and sugar together

Add eggs, molasses, vinegar

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves

Add flour mixture to wet ingredients

Mix until well-blended

Prepare a bowl or plate of granulated sugar

Form 1" balls of dough and roll them in the sugar

Place the balls on the greased cookie sheet, and slightly flatten them with your fingers. They will spread out more as they bake, so leave some room in between balls

Bake for about 12 minutes

My Notes

This recipe makes a lot of cookies that often last a while so you can either keep them on hand in a cookie jar or share some with friends!

Story

My mom got this recipe from a coworker in 1990; it was a recipe from her (the coworker's) grandmother

My family frequently makes these at Christmastime but will also make them other times throughout the year; they're not strictly a Christmas cookie for us!

Gingerbread Cookies

standard cookies for gingerbread men and other holiday shapes

Recipe:

3 1/2 cups flour + extra flour for rolling out the dough

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground cardamom

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cups sugar

1 egg

3/4 cup molasses

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp orange zest

Sift together flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom.

In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar

Add egg, molasses, salt, and orange (grate the rind of an orange to get zest)

Mix well

Stir in dry ingredients

Form all of the dough into a single large ball

Wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap

Chill the dough in the fridge overnight (or for at least a couple hours). Use dough within a week

Preheat oven to 375°

Flour a large flat surface for rolling out the dough

Use a floured rolling pin to roll the dough out to desired cookie thickness (it will probably expand a little bit while baking so make it a little thinner than intended)

Cut shapes in the dough, either freehand or with cookie cutters

Use a spatula to transfer cut dough to an ungreased cookie sheet

Bake for 8-10 minutes

My Notes

Cardamom can be hard to find! You can skip it, but it adds an extra flavor that you might not want to miss out on :)

If you can only find cardamom pods and not ground cardamom, you can ground it yourself pretty easily. Remove the pods, keeping the seeds that were inside. Use a mortar & pestle (or, if you don't have them, a drinking glass on a flat surface) to ground the seeds.

These cookies don't really need any frosting! They have so much flavor already that frosting would probably detract from them

Story

This is my family's go-to gingerbread cookie recipe for holiday-shaped cookies! My mom grew up with a different gingerbread cookie recipe, but when a family friend gave us this recipe, my mom started making this one instead because it was a little less work for a similar-tasting cookie.

Nana's Gingerbread Cookies

a more complex dough that's great for sturdy but still delicious gingerbread houses

Recipe:

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1/2 Tablespoon vinegar

3 cups flour + extra flour for rolling out the dough

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 beaten egg

In a pot on a stovetop on medium heat, add shortening, sugar, molasses, and vinegar.

Mix together and bring to a boil

Let the mixture cool a bit.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and ginger

Add egg to cooked mixture

Add sifted dry mixture

Mix well.

Chill the dough in the fridge (overnight is probably best)

Preheat oven to 375°

Grease a cookie sheet

Flour a large flat surface for rolling out the dough

Use a floured rolling pin to roll the dough out to desired cookie thickness (it will probably expand a little bit while baking so make it a little thinner than intended)

Cut shapes in the dough, either freehand or with cookie cutters

Use a spatula to transfer cut dough to an cookie sheet

Bake for 12-15 minutes

If you need a precise size/shape for your cookies (like for a gingerbread house): prepare to cut the cookies to the correct size immediately after removing them from the oven.

Hold the patterns up to the hot cookies while they're still on the baking sheet, and cut off (with a knife) any edges that have expanded past the pattern's sides. You must do this while the cookies are still hot, or they will harden and they won't cut as easily.

Recipe for gingerbread house frosting glue:

[need to add]

My Notes

I haven't made this recipe by myself before - by the time I'm handling it it's usually already to the shaping/cutting stage because it needs to be chilled beforehand

These cookies are often improved with some frosting on them! If you'd like to decorate your shaped gingerbread cookies with frosting, you might prefer to make these instead of the previous recipe.

Story

This is my Nana's gingerbread cookie recipe - the one my mom grew up with. Because this particular recipe is a little more work for cookies that are about as tasty, my family now usually prefers to make the previously-listed gingerbread cookie recipe. But we still come back to this recipe when we need to make gingerbread houses, because this recipe is both sturdy and delicious! Don't let your gingerbread houses go stale without tasting them when using this recipe! You can usually display your gingerbread house for at least a few days without it going stale.

Both sides of my family have traditions of making homemade gingerbread houses. Growing up, my sister and I would help build and decorate gingerbread houses. For many years we didn't make any, but December 2017 we had a family gingerbread house-decorating contest at Christmas, and in 2019 my family designed and built a gingerbread replica of my parents' historic Victorian house. My mom duplicated the gingerbread Victorian with all-edible parts for a contest this year!

Gingerbread

the cake, not the cookies!

Recipe:

Gingerbread

1 cup firmly-packed brown sugar

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

2 eggs

3/4 cup molasses

2 3/4 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk or sour milk (1 Tablespoon vinegar mixed with 1 cup milk)

Preheat oven to 350°

Grease and flour a 13"x9"x2" pan

In a large mixing bowl, combine brown sugar, shortening, and eggs, and mix well

In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and salt

Alternate adding flour mixture with buttermilk to wet mixture, blending well

Pour batter evenly into pan

Bake for 35-40 minutes

Lemon Sauce

1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 Tablespoon butter

juice of 1 lemon

In a small saucepan on medium heat, combine sugar, egg, butter, and lemon juice

Stir well until thick - about 8-10 minutes

Spoon warm sauce onto individual servings of gingerbread

My Notes

I've seen gingerbread with rum sauce before; feel free to experiment with sauces :)

I haven't personally made this recipe myself so I don't have any extra tips to add!

Story

This is a good cake for a more sophisticated holiday party. My sister loves lemon, so she particularly likes this recipe!

Gingerbread Cupcakes

for wintertime celebrations that need more cake

Recipe:

Cupcakes

1 3/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup melted unsalted butter

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1 large egg

1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 350°

Sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and salt

In a separate bowl whisk together butter, brown sugar, molasses, and egg

Alternate adding flour mixture with water to wet mixture, blending well

Stir until thoroughly combined

Spoon batter into cupcake cups in a muffin tin (don't overfill!)

Bake for 20-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean

Transfer cupcakes to a cooling rack

Cool for at least 30 minutes before frosting

Frosting

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature

8-oz package of cream cheese, softened (at room temperature)

4 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1-2 Tablespoons milk (just enough to spread the frosting)

Beat butter and cream cheese together until light and fluffy

Add sugar and cinnamon

Beat well

Add milk a little bit at a time until frosting is spreadable

Frost the cupcakes!

My Notes

Serving suggestion: Make small gingerbread cookies ahead of time and decorate the frosted cupcakes by putting gingerbread cookies on top!

Story

My mom first made these for my college graduation in December 2013! We've been using the frosting as our main cinnamon roll frosting ever since! (I have previously mentioned this frosting in my blog)

Bonus Gingerbread Cookies

cookies that are kinda a mix between ginger snaps and gingerbread cookies

Recipe:

1 1/2 cups firmly-packed brown sugar

1/4 cup dark molasses

1 egg, room temperature

1 cup butter, melted and slightly cooled

2 2/3 cups sifted flour + extra flour for rolling out the dough

2 tsp ground ginger

1 1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

granulated sugar/colored sugar for rolling

In a large bowl, combine brown sugar, molasses, and egg

Mix well

Beat in butter

Sift together flour, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.

If you want circular cookies: Lightly flour a surface and shape dough into 4 long logs, about 5/8 inch in diameter. Cut each log in half so you have eight 5/8-inch logs

For shaped cookies: roll into a ball

Freeze until thoroughly chilled - about an hour

Preheat oven to 350°

Lightly grease baking sheet

Prepare a dish of granulated sugar

For circular cookies: Cut each log into 1/4-inch slices

For shaped cookies: Flour a large flat surface for rolling out the dough; Use a floured rolling pin to roll the dough out to desired cookie thickness (it will probably expand a little bit while baking so make it a little thinner than intended); Cut shapes in the dough, either freehand or with cookie cutters

Dip cookies into sugar, turning several times to coat entire surface

Flatten the cookies a little more, especially if you haven't rolled out the dough

Transfer dough to cookie sheet, spacing about 1 inch apart

Bake for 6-8 minutes - lightly browned

Let cool for about 30 seconds, then quickly transfer cookies to wax paper

Sprinkle with more sugar

My Notes

I haven't tried making these yet!

Story

I went to a cookie exchange at a friend's parents' house, and his parents had made these gingerbread cookies! They were so crisp and delicious that I asked for the recipe :)