Gingerbread Biscuits

These gingerbread biscuits are crisp, soft and chewy with the perfect amount of warm ginger spice, there’s only one problem, they are ridiculously moreish!

They come together quickly and easily, using just a few ingredients, great for making and decorating with children. You can leave them plain or decorate them after they’re baked with royal icing as desired. This is one biscuit I love to make for Christmas every year for the family, which is always a winner.

I love to bake a few different biscuits/cookies for Christmas and arrange them on a nice platter for when people drop by. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out these Christmas recipes: chestnut snowball cookies, Viennese biscuits, cranberry lemon shortbread, cinnamon biscuits and Linzer Biscuits.

If you decide to give this recipe a try, let me know! Leave a comment below and rate it – it’s really helpful to me and other readers knowing what you think! And don’t forget to take a picture and tag me @thegourmetlarder or hashtag it #thegourmetlarder on Instagram or Facebook. I love seeing what you’ve been baking! 🙂

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INGREDIENTS

For this recipe all you need are these ingredients:

• Butter – adds structure and flavour. I use salted butter for most of my baking as it intensifies the flavours, but feel free to use unsalted if you prefer. Make sure it’s at room temperature before using.

• Light brown sugar – adds a slight caramel sweetness to the gingerbread.

• Molasses – adds a depth of flavour to these beautiful biscuits, as well as a soft and chewy consistency on the inside.

• Medium egg – binds the ingredients, adds flavour and helps to make the biscuits a little lighter.

• Pure vanilla extract or paste – adds flavour and enhances the other ingredient flavours in the recipe.

– Vanilla recommendations: pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste or vanilla pods.

• Plain (all-purpose) flour – builds structure.

• Baking powder – is a chemical leavening which increases the volume of the ingredients, creating a nice light texture.

• Ground ginger – gives these biscuits their distinctive taste and aroma.

• Salt – I highly recommend adding a good pinch of fine salt to your biscuit doughs. It might seem a bit weird, but it actually has the incredible ability to enhance sweetness, suppress bitterness, and elevate the flavour of all the ingredients, making your biscuits taste even better. It’s pretty crazy, the sodium in the salt sends signals to move glucose into your tongue’s sweet taste receptors, making the sweetness really pop. So, don’t be afraid to sprinkle a little salt – it’ll take your biscuits to the next level!
  I recommend Maldon Sea salt flakes or Cornish sea salt, but any good quality sea salt is fine.

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SUBSTITUTIONS

While I am making recommendations for alternative ingredients, I haven’t necessarily tried them. If you try making any adaptions, I would love to know how you get on and share it with the other readers.

GLUTEN-FREE OPTION

• Flour: replace the gluten flour with a 1:1 alternative gluten free flour, such as Doves Farm Free plain gluten free flour. If possible, choose a flour which contains xanthan gum or alternatively, add 1 tsp to your batter for stability. You can also try Doves Farm gluten free self-raising flour.

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WHAT VARIATIONS CAN I MAKE?

• Spices – try adding additional spices, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, all spice or cardamon. You don’t need much, so just half a teaspoon of one or two of these spices.

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NUTRITION

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STORAGE AND FREEZING

For the first day, these biscuits will be firm and crunchy but will soften as time goes by. They keep in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Freezing the baked gingerbread – cool the biscuits completely after baking and place them in a freezer bag or airtight container. They will last up to 1 month. When you are ready to serve, allow the cookies to reach room temperature.

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TOOLS YOU’LL NEED

Here is some kitchen equipment that I use and recommend for this recipe.

• Earthenware Mixing Bowl Mason Cash, Cream 29 cm Chip Resistant.

I like the sturdiness of this bowl and its 4 litre capacity means I can use it for mixing just about everything in the kitchen. It is also microwave, freezer and dishwasher safe.

• Mixing Bowls Set of 5, Stainless Steel Nesting Bowls with Airtight Lids, 3 Grater Attachments, Size 5, 3, 2, 1.5, 0.63 QT

These different size mixing bowls are really useful depending on the amount of food you are preparing. They also have airtight lids that fit snugly to seal and keep food fresh, great for using as dry storage bowls with lids. The plastic lid of the largest bowl has a removable centre, where one of 3 graters can be used for grating cheese or vegetables.

• 3 Plastic Mixing Bowls, Non-Slip Base, Soft Grip Handle, Microwave and Dishwasher Safe, Compact, Stackable, Ideal for baking and cooking, off-white, 1.5 Litre, 2 Litre, 2.5 Litre.

I do own a plastic mixing bowl but I am personally not a big fan of them. These 3 bowls are on the smaller size but good for the odd cake making.

• Breville Classic Combo Stand and Hand Mixer | 3.7 Litre Stainless Steel Bowl | Swivel Control, Whisk, Dough Hooks and Beaters

I like this model of electric hand mixer because it comes with a large stand, meaning you don’t have to always hold it.

• KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer Die-cast Metal, 300 W, 4.8 ltrs
  

Not everyone is lucky enough to have one of these but they are useful if you do a lot of baking or making bread.

• Gingerbread Man Cookie Cutter Set, Stainless Steel Cutters in 3 sizes measuring 10.5 cm, 8 cm and 6.5 cm
• Mr & Mrs Gingerbread Man & Woman Cookie Cutter Set of 2

Both of these sets of cookie cutters are great for making this gingerbread recipe.

Please check out my Shop for a curated collection of some of my favourite baking equipment. The Gourmet Larder is an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

TIP: I highly recommend using metric measurements and a digital kitchen scale, rather than cup measurements. If you have ever ended up with dry, dense or crumbly baked goods, it might be because of inaccurate volume measurements, not all measuring cups are made equally. All my recipes on this blog are carefully developed so that you can easily recreate them in your own kitchen with success, using metric measurements. It is also a lot easier, less messy and you will get far better, consistent results. 🙂
If you are interested in understanding conversions, here you will find the best conversion chart.

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RECIPE TIPS

Use room temperature ingredients – this is really important; it makes it easier to work with and allows the ingredients to emulsify properly.

Avoid over mixing the dough – which could lead to tough biscuits. Only mix the dough until the dry ingredients are just incorporated.

Rolling out – make sure your worksurface and rolling pin are floured generously to prevent the dough from sticking to them.

Shaping – don’t roll the dough out too thin, otherwise the biscuits will become to hard once baked.

Resting and chilling the dough – if you want to get the best results, placing the dough in the fridge prior to baking allows the dry ingredients to absorb the moisture from the wet ingredients. This creates more flavour in the dough and makes it easier to roll out with less sticking.

Avoid over baking the biscuits – all ovens are different, and you want to avoid overbaking this biscuit. The size of your biscuits will determine the amount of time they require to bake. My medium size biscuits, which are 10cm in length, take around 10 minutes to bake for a soft version and up to 14 minutes for a crunchy version. Any longer and you will be left with a hard, crunchy cookie.