Description
These delicious spiced soft gingerbread cookies are embossed with cookie stamps.
Ingredients
Scale
Dough:
- 100g (1/2 cup packed) dark brown sugar
- 80 ml (1/3 cup) molasses
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 60 ml (1/4 cup/55g) neutral oil such as light olive oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 280g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
- 7g (1 tablespoon) Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 2g (1/2 teaspoon) kosher salt
- 6g (1 tablespoon) ground ginger
- 3g (1 1/2 teaspoon) cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon grated whole nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground anise seed
- 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper (optional)
Glaze:
- 80g (2/3 cup) powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 3–4 tablespoons water
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together the dark brown sugar, molasses, egg, oil, and vanilla until smooth, about 1 minute.
- Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and spices in a separate bowl. Then stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture with a rubber spatula or spoon until a soft dough forms, about 1 minute.
- Tip the dough onto a floured surface and knead it into a smooth ball for about 30 seconds.
- Divide the dough in half and shape each half into a disc. Then wrap each disc and refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour.
- Roll the dough to about 1/2″ thick on a floured surface.
- Brush the cookie molds with flour before pressing them into the dough firmly. Lift the mold up and cut the cookie out with a fluted cutter or round cutter.
- Transfer the cookies with an offset spatula to parchment paper lined baking sheets.
- Reroll and cut the dough scraps until all of the dough is used up.
- Leave the cookies out at room temperature uncovered for 8-12 hours to dry out and set the stamped design into the dough. After the drying period brush off any excess flour from the cookies with a dry pastry brush.
- When ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 300˚F (150˚C) then bake them for 12 minutes for small/medium-sized cookies and about 15 minutes for larger cookies. The cookies will puff slightly and should still be soft when pressed.
- Transfer cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely before optionally glazing them.
- To prepare the glaze simply whisk the ingredients together into a fairly loose and free-flowing glaze. Then spoon or brush the glaze onto the cooled cookies. Return them to the cooling rack to allow the glaze to set before handling them further.
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Idle Time: 8 hours
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven Baked
- Cuisine: German
Keywords: molded gingerbread, stamped gingerbread, soft gingerbread, German gingerbread, gingerbread cookies, gingerbread, ginger, cinnamon, molasses, anise, clove, vanilla, spiced gingerbread