Increasingly on New Year and Christmas bake gingerbread. Housewives purchase molds in advance so that the treat is not only tasty, but also beautiful. The kids really like gingerbread men. After all, you can still play with them! ..
famous confectioner Alexander Seleznev shared signature recipe making gingerbread men.
Instagram @chefalexmonaco
Dough Ingredients:
- 350 g honey
- 125 g brown sugar (you can also use white sugar)
- 125 g butter
- 540 g flour
- 2 teaspoons of soda (extinguish with lemon juice)
- 1 st. a spoonful of a mixture of different spices (cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger)
- 1 egg
- Glaze Ingredients:
- 1 egg white
- 1 st. a spoonful of lemon juice
- 180 g powdered sugar
Cooking:
- Mix honey, sugar and butter. Then, stirring constantly, heat the mixture until the oil dissolves.
- In a separate container, add soda to the flour, previously quenched with lemon juice.
- Pour the heated mixture of honey, sugar and butter into the flour. Add fragrant spices and an egg. Knead the dough.
- Leave the dough overnight room temperature. (And this is the first professional secret from Alexander Seleznev. After all, many housewives leave the dough to “rest” in the refrigerator.) Then roll it out, cut out the little men and bake for 12 minutes at a temperature of 180 degrees.
- Cool the cakes and paint with glaze.
Instagram @chefalexmonaco
The confectioner also spoke about the secret of its preparation:
Made from raw protein, powdered sugar and lemon juice. The last ingredient must be added - with it the glaze will harden faster. Powdered sugar should be taken as small as possible so that there are no grains in the glaze later. And eggs are always the freshest, dietary ones, they are the safest.
When you beat the protein and add the powder, the icing should not drain from the whisk, but solidify on it in a dense triangle. So the amount of powder must be adjusted by eye, put more - the glaze will harden in a lump, less - it will turn out liquid.
Once the icing is kneaded, pour it into a confectionery syringe or bag, and cover the rest with cling film - otherwise it will dry out quickly, dry pieces will come across in it and get stuck in the syringe or bag.
Instagram @margo_dibrova
Some subscribers of Alexander Seleznev's personal blog admitted that they had already tried gingerbread made according to this recipe. Here is one of the reviews:
Thanks a lot for the recipe! Gingerbread cookies are fragrant and do not dry for a long time, it is a pleasure to work with this dough.
Do you bake gingerbread men for the New Year?
Gingerbread is a tasty and fragrant delicacy that has been a symbol of Christmas for several centuries. Today we will tell you where and how gingerbread cookies appeared, give advice on their preparation, recipes for dark and light gingerbread, and at the end of the article a surprise awaits you: ready-made templates for cutting gingerbread and examples of painting them with icing!
A bit of history
Gingerbread is a very ancient delicacy. The prototype of gingerbread was known even before our era in ancient Egypt. In Russia, gingerbread appeared in the ninth century, they were called "honey bread" because of the large amount of honey in their composition. Various spices began to be added much later, when they were brought from the countries of the Middle East and India. Gingerbread cookies were baked in the shape of various animals, so they were not only a tasty treat, but also toys for children.
Great Britain is considered the birthplace of gingerbread. Legend has it that the recipe for gingerbread and ginger itself were brought by medieval crusaders. Ginger was a symbol of health, so it was added to many Christmas sweets. Since then, it has been a tradition among Catholics to bake gingerbread for Christmas.
By the way, in Europe and the USA, gingerbread cookies are often baked in the shape of a man - the so-called Gingerbread Man. This is a popular character from an old fairy tale, similar in plot to the fairy tale "Gingerbread Man".
Now the German city of Nuremberg is called the “gingerbread capital of the world”. There is a whole market where you can buy gingerbread made according to an old recipe.
Source: lidovky.cz
- In addition to ginger, use cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cardamom, nutmeg, allspice, and for even more piquancy - orange zest or cocoa.
- To make the gingerbread fragrant and acquire a pleasant color, use natural dark honey instead of sugar.
- Instead of baking soda, you can add two teaspoons of cognac as a baking powder.
- The dough can be raw or custard. Raw dough is obtained when all the ingredients are simply mixed together. Custard - when honey is heated with water (milk) and butter.
- Gingerbread is also a great Christmas decoration. Before baking, make a hole in them for the thread.
- Before you put the gingerbread cookies in the oven, brush them with an egg - this will give them a glossy shine.
- It can be difficult to know if the gingerbread is ready or not yet. If they are browned around the edges, have risen a little, then you can take them out of the oven.
- Lay the finished gingerbread cookies on a flat surface so as not to spoil their shape.
- Decorating gingerbread is not necessary immediately. It is better to bake them in the evening, and paint them in the morning. Protein glaze can be tinted with berry juice.
- It turns out that gingerbread cookies need to “ripen”, that is, they need time to become more tasty and fragrant - at least a week. Place the gingerbread in glass jar and put an orange peel or an apple slice on them. Close the lid tightly. Every day for a week, do not forget to change the skin of an orange or an apple for a fresh one.
Source: mindblowingpicture.com
Chocolate gingerbread
Ingredients:
- flour, 175 g
- ground ginger, 1 tsp
- ground cinnamon, ½ tsp
- ground cloves, ½ tsp
- baking powder or soda, 1.5 tsp
- salt, pinch
- cocoa, 1 tsp
- butter, 100 g
- sugar or honey, 100 g
- egg, 2 pcs.
- powdered sugar, ½ tbsp.
- lemon juice, 1 tbsp.
Cooking:
Sift flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking powder or soda, a pinch of salt, cocoa into a bowl. Add soft cubes of butter and mix the dough with your hands - you should get a crumbly mass. Then add sugar or honey, one egg (leave the second for protein glaze or lubrication of gingerbread to make them shine) and knead the dough. Roll it into a ball, wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for two hours. After that, roll out the dough and cut out the gingerbread cookies using the templates that you can find at the end of the article. Sprinkle a baking sheet with flour (or cover with parchment paper) and put the gingerbread cookies on it. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for about 15 minutes.
Chilled gingerbread must be painted with protein glaze. To do this, beat one protein to stable peaks (this is when it does not pour out of the bowl, if you raise it above your head), gradually adding powdered sugar. At the end, add lemon juice and beat again for 10 seconds. Put the resulting icing in a pastry bag and decorate the gingerbread cookies as your fantasy tells you. Let the frosting dry for about half an hour.
Source: schastie-mamy.ru
Light gingerbread
Ingredients:
- flour, 250 g
- ground ginger, 1.5 tsp
- ground cinnamon, 1 tsp
- ground nutmeg, ½ tsp
- ground cloves, ½ tsp
- baking powder or soda, ½ tsp
- yolks, 4 pcs.
- sugar, 150 g
- milk, 1 tbsp.
- honey, 150 g
- butter, 50 g
- protein, 2 pcs.
- powdered sugar, ½ tbsp.
- lemon juice, 1 tbsp.
Cooking:
Sift flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and baking powder (soda) into a bowl. Whisk the yolks with sugar. Pour milk, honey and butter into a saucepan. Heat it all up, stirring, bring to a homogeneous mass, but do not let it boil. Then pour this mixture and the yolks with sugar to the dry ingredients, knead the dough. After that, roll it out and cut out the gingerbread using the templates that you can find at the end of the article. Lay the cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in the oven at 200 degrees for 15 minutes. Decorate the cooled gingerbread cookies with protein glaze - in the same way as described in the previous recipe.
New Year's shooting is a great occasion to meet friends. Magazine OK! decided to arrange a small holiday for his authors - Alexander Seleznev and Yana Laputina, who are more common abroad than in Moscow. At the Balcony restaurant, culinary gurus and beauty experts shared with OK! with their childhood dreams and prepared a gingerbread house.
Pavel Tantserev The New Year decorations of the Balcony restaurant inspired a special mood for creating culinary miracles. This is probably why Alexander and Yana's gingerbread house turned out to be a little fabulous.
BUT lexander, Yana, tell me, please, have you ever celebrated the New Year in an unusual setting?
Yana: I am a terrible conservative, so I always celebrate the New Year with my family in Moscow. True, once my husband and I had a non-standard decision to fry kebabs in the yard of our house for the New Year. And everything would be fine, but the house is located on Tverskaya, a five-minute drive from Red Square. At midnight, we, as expected, celebrated the New Year at home, and an hour later, when our friends pulled up to us, we all together pulled the barbecue out into the street, put the French champagne in a snowdrift to cool and began to play snowballs, a lot of amusing neighbors in that holiday night. (Smiling.)
Alexander: And I'm not as conservative as Yana, and I like to celebrate the New Year in different countries. True, now I am more and more inclined to believe that the sensations are brighter when you celebrate in the winter, and not under the hot sun. In his youth, he always spent this holiday with his family, preparing salads, duck, and cakes. Now, on December 31, there is no energy left for culinary exploits: every year in mid-December my food show takes place in Gostiny Dvor, and this requires serious preparation. So at the end of December, I usually want to escape from the pre-New Year's fuss. For several years in a row I ran away to Barbados. My friends and I even have a tradition of celebrating the New Year on this island in accordance with different time zones, that is, our holiday stretches for a whole day, and by the time the Barbadian New Year comes, forces are usually running out. (Laughs.) I also remember when I worked as a pastry chef at the Alexandria coffee house, on the last day of the outgoing year, due to the large number of orders, I was able to leave the coffee house only at ten in the evening. I got into a taxi and got stuck in a traffic jam on the Enthusiasts Highway. There he met the New Year.
Photo: Pavel Tantserev
What do you associate this holiday with?
A .: I associate it with the aroma of baking: in addition to salads and hot dishes, my mother and I always made a lot of desserts - necessarily a honey cake and gingerbread.
Me: And my mother bakes a pig every time. Generally our New Year's table quite ascetic. In addition to the pig, it has jelly, Olivier with crab meat and champagne. We have long ceased to build pyramids of salads and snacks - it seems to me that this is a relic of the Soviet past.
That is, you do not take any breaks for detox after long holidays?
I .: In food, I used to control myself, but it’s not always possible to refuse another glass of champagne on New Year’s week. So as soon as the holidays subside, on the sixth of January I will get on a plane and fly to Germany, where I will drink mineral water and bathe in mineral springs.
A .: And for me, the New Year is a holiday of permissiveness: I eat whatever I want, and from the second of January - a new life. (Laughs.)
Do you remember what gifts you asked Santa Claus as a child?
A .: The most desired gifts were a dog and a bicycle. And I got both! I found a new bike under the tree almost every year, as I grew out of the old one. But Grandfather Frost always brought me a bicycle with a frame, but I wanted without it, so I complained about Grandfather Frost to my grandmother. (Smiling.) I still believe in miracles. I have a tradition: every year on December 31st I make a wish list. Not gifts, but desires: what I want to achieve next year, what projects to implement. I put this list in a Japanese vase and hide it so that no one at home can find it. Believe it or not, every year these wishes come true.
Y.: I had a story with skates: I really wanted to receive them as a gift - they were in short supply then. I remember that my parents could not immediately agree with Santa Claus, and he brought them to me only a year later. And everything worked out with them right away - probably because my dad was great at skating. This winter I will actively train with my three-year-old daughter, who started skating a year ago. In general, Teya shares many of my hobbies. Just recently, while my grandmother did not see, she climbed into her mother's cosmetic bag with her favorite palettes and lipsticks and made herself such an expressive make-up that at any Halloween party she would be mistaken for her own. (Laughs.)
Does Thea already know what she wants to receive as a gift for the New Year?
Me: Of course! She very clearly expressed her desire six months ago. Said, "When it's New Year's, I want a live pink horse." With the approach of December 31, my husband and I are in a state of panic, because we still have no idea how to help Grandfather Frost find this wonderful animal. (Laughs.)
Photo: Pavel Tantserev
Gingerbread house
Ingredients:
- 350 g honey
- 250 g wheat flour
- 250 g rye flour
- 125 g brown sugar
- 25 g cocoa
- 125 g butter
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp carnations
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp soda
- 3 eggs
- 300 g powdered sugar
- 3 art. l. lemon juice
- liquid purple food coloring
Cooking:
- Pour honey into a saucepan, put butter, pour brown sugar. Heat the mixture, stirring constantly. In a separate container, mix both types of flour with soda.
- Pour warmed honey with butter and sugar into the mixture, add egg, cocoa, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, ginger. Knead the dough in a mixer, wrap it in a film and place it in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Roll out the dough to a thickness of 5 mm.
- Using a cardboard stencil, we cut out four walls and the roof of the house. We send for 20 minutes to bake at a temperature of 200 ° C. For glaze, separate the protein from the yolk, add lemon juice and beat, gradually pouring in powdered sugar.
- In a separate container, mix half of the glaze with the dye. We begin to paint the cooled gingerbread cookies. We cover each wall of the house with purple glaze and draw white windows. We glue the walls of the house with glaze, and cover the roof with it.
Baking with the addition of ginger is a real masterpiece, you can’t confuse it with anything - it exudes such a pleasant aroma! No less impressive is her blush. And what a crunch is heard when relatives eat this delicacy! Today you will learn how to cook the famous delicacy, gingerbread cookies - a recipe from Yulia Vysotskaya, Andy Chef, Jamie Oliver, Alexander Seleznev and Lisa Glinskaya. Such a selection culinary masterpieces will definitely come in handy for housewives who love to surprise their guests and loved ones with their talents.
Gingerbread cookies from Yulia Vysotskaya
Ingredients: ginger root; flour - 200 g; egg - 1; soda - 1 tsp; cinnamon, cardamom - 1 tsp each; 4 cloves; butter - 100 g; sugar - 100 g; honey - 1 tbsp. l.
Sift the flour first. To it you need to add spices, soda. We crush the cloves and cardamom in a mortar, add cinnamon. We clean the ginger root and rub it on a grater (fine). If you have ground, then use it, but fresh has more flavor.
Now the butter needs to be combined with brown sugar. It is best to use a mixer. You will get a fragrant thick mass. We add an egg and honey to it, then beat again. It's time to mix the sticky mass with flour and spices. The dough initially seems too sticky and stubborn, this is normal. Wrap it in polyethylene, leave it for an hour and a half in the refrigerator.
Now we separate the fourth part from the whole mass (put the rest back in the refrigerator) and roll it out on parchment paper with a rolling pin as thin as possible. Cut out shapes using cutters. We send products to the oven. We bake 7 minutes. The temperature is 180 degrees. Next, take out the next piece of dough and do the same with it.
Gingerbread by Andy Chef
Ingredients: flour - 170 g; drain. oil - 70 g; powdered sugar - 75 g; salt - 0.5 tsp; soda - a pinch; yolk - 1; honey - 30 g; ginger - 1 tsp; the same amount of cinnamon.
All loose components (excluding powder) are sieved twice through a sieve. We freeze the butter first, and then immediately divide it into small fractions. Now we send it to the sifted ingredients and quickly knead it with our hands. The result is a dry crumb. We send honey, powdered sugar, egg yolk to it. Thoroughly knead the dough until a homogeneous smooth structure is achieved. Then we form a ball and, wrapping it in a film, put it in the refrigerator. After an hour, cut off part of the dough and roll it very thinly directly on the parchment. We cut out simple figures with metal molds. We send it to the oven for 6 minutes. The temperature is 180 degrees.
Jamie Oliver Gingerbread Cookies
Jamie Oliver made gingerbread cookies in a very original way, let's take note of his recipe.
Ingredients: shortbread- about 400 g; dark sugar - 170 g; ginger - 3 tsp; fruit zest - 40 g; grated ginger - 40 g; molasses - 40 g; honey - 40 g; oil - 70 g; flour - 70 g; baking powder sachet.
While the oven is heating, you need to put cookies, sugar and 2 tablespoons of ginger into the blender bowl, turn it on so that everything turns into crumbs. Now set aside a little of the resulting mass (about 100 g) in a separate bowl, you will need it at the very end. To the crumbs in a food processor, add the remaining ginger, flour, fruit zest, and baking powder.
Take a capacious saucepan, melt butter, honey and add molasses here. Transfer the crumbs from the combine to the pan. Now, with a spoon, mix the mass until smooth. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, place the dough on it and smooth it out with a spatula. Leave in a preheated oven - temperature regime of 180 degrees, for 10 minutes. Finished cake season with the previously set aside crumbs with ginger and cut the dough into pieces with a knife. Ready!
Gingerbread cookies from Alexander Seleznev
Ingredients: flour - 400; egg - 1; sugar - 125 g; butter - 125 g; salt - 5 g; honey - 4 tbsp. l.; cinnamon, vanilla and baking powder - 1 tsp each; ginger - 2 tsp
We put a saucepan on low heat, put honey in it and add sugar, stir constantly so that the sand dissolves. In this case, the honey should not boil. Sift the flour into a deep bowl, pour the baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, vanillin, salt and egg into it. Now add softened butter to this container and spread the honey with sugar melted in it. We begin to knead with a spoon, and then with our hands. Having formed a lump, cover it with a film and leave to lie down. Then roll out the gingerbread dough thinly - about 3 mm. Cut out the shapes and bake for 5-6 minutes at a temperature of 230 degrees.
Gingerbread cookies from Lisa Glinskaya
Ingredients: flour - 200 g; oil - 100 g; half an egg; 25 g sugar; zest of half a lemon and a quarter of an orange; nutmeg and ground ginger - a quarter of a teaspoon; 0.5 tsp cinnamon, salt.
We pass all the dry ingredients through a sieve, mix them, add oil (cold, not softened) to them, combine with the dry ingredients with our hands, turning them into crumbs. Then we introduce half of the egg and mix everything again. We form a lump from the dough and put it in the refrigerator, let it lie down for about an hour. Then roll out thinly and cut out shapes. We send to bake at a temperature of 170 degrees for 8 minutes.
There are thousands of recipes for gingerbread cookies, but here are 5 options for making gingerbread that deserve attention, because they were prepared by famous people. Try it and you will find the recipe that your family will like.
Alexander Seleznev, the most famous confectioner in our country, the host of culinary programs on television, the author of several books on confectionery, told AiF.ru what simple and light desserts can be prepared for the New Year, why alcohol is so important in confectionery art and how to work with glaze.
Maria Tikhmeneva, AiF.ru: Alexander, what are the trends in New Year's baking this year? What is fashionable to cook?
Alexander Seleznev: European confectioners recommend cooking vegetable cakes. For example, I will do Apple pie, many of my friends will make pumpkin or carrot cakes, and one - even from celery. I think that classic cakes with creams - it is better not to do. With vegetables, it will turn out both tasty and healthy. Take a look at the pumpkin: very a good option. You can always add your favorite spices to pumpkin pie: cloves, cardamom, vanilla sugar. It will turn out interesting and fragrant.
If we talk about traditional pastries… Stollens are often baked in Europe, and apple tart tatins are often baked in France. Our hostesses prefer Soviet cakes: "Flight", "Napoleon", honey cake. But even in these classic cakes, I would recommend adding fruits: apples, bananas, tangerines, oranges, persimmons, you can still baked pumpkin. With one of these additives, the same “Flight” will turn out to be original and festive.
And if you cook not a cake, but something easier and simpler?
fit various variations panna cotta and tiramisu, you can make jelly from chocolate, white and milk. And serve these desserts in bowls, decorate with berries.
For example, you can take any cream cheese(mascarpone, philadelphia, ricotta), add a little liquor or port wine, whipped cream, powdered sugar, you can add a little honey. Savoyardi sticks soak in syrup, fruit juice or alcohol. Put them on the bottom of the creamer, whipped on top butter cream, cool and garnish with pomegranate seeds, raspberries, strawberries, as desired. It turned out to be a light and spectacular New Year's dessert.
Is alcohol mandatory in holiday desserts?
Alcohol gives the dessert a twist. If you do not add it, it turns out just sweet, and in order for a real dessert to be born, you need to use alcohol. And this applies not only to holiday desserts.
What is the best thing to add? Rum, various brandies and cognacs, Calvados, Cointreau and Grand Marnier orange liqueurs. Any alcohol that you like can even be quite strong: the alcohol will disappear, but the taste and aroma will remain.
What New Year's desserts are ordered from you this year?
Usually they order a variety of cakes, this year - with horseshoes and horses. Sometimes they ask to make on the cake an image of a broken Snow Maiden in a bathing suit and with Santa Claus: small, with a belly and with a bottle in his hands. Gingerbread houses and gingerbread toys, gingerbread men are also very popular.
If you make ginger figurines yourself, please tell us how to decorate them.
Glaze. It is made from raw protein, powdered sugar and lemon juice. The last ingredient must be added - with it the glaze will harden faster. Powdered sugar should be taken as small as possible so that there are no grains in the glaze later. And eggs are always the freshest, dietary ones, they are the safest.
When you beat the protein and add the powder, the icing should not drain from the whisk, but solidify on it in a dense triangle. So the amount of powder must be adjusted by eye, put more - the glaze will harden in a lump, less - it will turn out liquid.
Once the icing is kneaded, pour it into a confectionery syringe or bag, and cover the rest with cling film - otherwise it will dry out quickly, dry pieces will come across in it and get stuck in the syringe or bag.
New Year's desserts from Alexander Seleznev from the book “Festive Baking. Simple Recipes»
Christmas honey cake "Elka" Photo: Eksmo Press Service
Christmas honey cake "Yolka"
Even if you have already decorated a Christmas tree in the house, another fabulous "Christmas tree" on the table will not hurt at all. Moreover, she has the taste of everyone's favorite honey cake!
250 g honey
200 g sugar
200 g butter
40 ml rum
2 tsp soda quenched with vinegar
700 g sour cream
5 pieces. kiwi
50 g cranberries
Step 1. Mix honey, sugar and butter.
Step 2. Heat the mixture in a water bath and beat with a whisk.
Step 3: Whisk the yolks with the rum and vinegar and add to the hot mixture.
Step 4. Sift the flour and stir into the honey mixture.
Step 5. Brew the dough with a whisk, remove from heat. Then refrigerate.
Step 6 Divide the dough into 12 pieces.
Step 7. Roll into layers and bake alternately at a temperature of 190 ° C for 10 minutes.
Step 8 Spread each layer with sour cream and refrigerate to soak.
Step 9. When the cake is soaked, cut it into a Christmas tree shape.
Step 10 Peel the kiwi and cut into slices.
Step 11 Decorate the top of the kiwi cake with cranberries.
Christmas cookies Photo: Eksmo Press Service
Christmas cookies
Christmas has its own unique smell: spruce, crisp snow, and, of course, special Christmas cookies!
250 g honey
250 g sugar
175 g butter
5 st. l. lemon juice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 st. l. cocoa
3 art. l. Roma
Protein-drawing mass:
150 g powdered sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
Step 1. Mix honey, sugar and butter.
Step 2. In a water bath, heat this mixture and remove from heat.
Step 3. Add the egg and cinnamon, mix.
Step 4. Sift flour and mix with cocoa.
Step 5. Add flour, rum and lemon juice to the honey mixture and knead into a smooth dough.
Step 6. Leave it to air cool to room temperature.
7. Roll out the dough into a layer 5 mm thick.
8. Cut out cookies in the form of men and stars from the dough.
9. Bake the cookies at 200°C for 15 minutes.
10. Decorate the cooled cookies with protein-drawing mass.
Protein-drawing mass:
Beat the protein with powdered sugar and lemon juice until a stable mass forms. Touch up mass food coloring and transfer to a cornet.
Cake made of brushwood "Christmas tree" Photo: Press service of the Publishing House "Eksmo"
Cake from brushwood "Christmas tree"
If you collect the brushwood cookies, beloved by many, in a special way, you will get an elegant New Year's tree!
7 art. l. flour
a pinch of salt
1 st. l. vodka
500 ml vegetable oil for deep frying
Caramel:
200 g sugar
70 ml water
Step 1. Sift flour and mix with eggs and salt. Knead the dough.
Step 2. Put the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Step 3. Roll out the dough and cut into strips of different lengths.
Step 4 Vegetable oil heat up on the stove.
Step 5 Dip the strips of dough into the oil for a few seconds.
Step 6 Remove and dry on a paper towel.
Step 7. Glue the brushwood in the form of a Christmas tree with caramel.
Step 8 Decorate the top of the Christmas tree with caramel threads.
Caramel:
Heat sugar and water on the stove until brown. Then lower the pot of caramel into the container with cold water for 30 seconds.
Gingerbread cookies - recipes, decorating and storing it will be discussed in sufficient detail in our article. The history of the origin of this unusually popular delicacy takes us to medieval England.
It was there that a certain obscure monk, wishing to please the brothers with delicious Christmas pastries, accidentally knocked over a jar of precious spices into a bowl of dough. The pastries turned out so delicious that the recipe quickly spread throughout Europe, and cookies became an essential attribute of Christmas. It was almost 900 years ago.
Initially, delicious gingerbread cookies were in the form of round or oval cakes. Two centuries ago, a tradition appeared in Europe to give them figured outlines. The gingerbread house was especially popular.
Medieval confectioners used them to create fabulously beautiful towns. Since that time, masters living in Pardubice, Nuremberg and Torun have been considered leaders in the production of gourmet gingerbread and biscuits.
Gingerbread cookies, video recipe from "Creativity in the Kitchen":Classic gingerbread cookies with cinnamon
How to make gingerbread cookies? It is not at all difficult to make it, being within the walls of your own home.
A set of ground spices:
- Cloves - 1 teaspoon.
- Cinnamon - 2 teaspoons.
- Ginger - 2 teaspoons.
- Black pepper or cardamom - ½ teaspoon.
Step by step recipe:
- The liquid component of the dough is prepared by placing in a blender 200 g of softened butter, the same amount of granulated sugar and egg.
- Sifting wheat flour(two full glasses with a slide), pour half a teaspoon of soda and a set of spices into it, and then add the contents of the blender to it.
- After mixing, a very soft and plastic shortbread dough is obtained.
- Its temperature should not be higher than room temperature, therefore, packed in a plastic film, it is sent to the bottom shelf of the refrigerator for a quarter of an hour. Only under this condition will it be cut without problems.
- The cooled semi-finished product is thinly rolled out and, armed with molds, they begin to transform the faceless layer, creating various figures.
- Using a wide knife, shifting the blanks onto a baking sheet, bake the cookies in a hot (180 degrees) oven. This process should take no more than a quarter of an hour.
How to paint a ginger delicacy? Ice is traditionally used to decorate it - icing sugar.
Creating a Classic Glaze:
- The protein, separated from the yolk, is whipped with powdered sugar (150 g) using a whisk or mixer until a strong foam is obtained.
- If a teaspoon of glaze laid out on a saucer is able to retain its shape without spreading, the product is ready.
To tint the glaze, use a few drops of beetroot, carrot and blackcurrant juice.
Having filled the confectionery syringe with icing, decorate the chilled cookies with it. The painting from a properly prepared icing should harden in a couple of hours. Elegant cookies are placed on the Christmas tree and presented for Christmas.
Crispy gingerbread cookies with icing
Manufacturing steps:
- The yolks separated from the proteins (2 pcs.) Are mixed with a quarter cup of powdered sugar and butter (25 g).
- Having made a mixture from a glass of flour, freshly prepared orange peel(tablespoon), a dessert spoon of cognac, ginger and cinnamon powder (half a teaspoon each) and a small amount of baking powder, knead the dough.
- The prepared semi-finished product is allowed to approach in the refrigerator.
- Having made a thin (not thicker than 3 mm) layer, they take molds and cut out flowers or stars.
- Bake for about ten minutes on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Temperature oven- 160 degrees.
Glaze Ingredients:
- Half a fresh lemon.
- Powdered sugar - 200 g.
- Egg - 1 pc.
The icing for gingerbread cookies is prepared as follows:
- First, the protein is whipped, turning into a dense foam.
- Spoonful of powdered sugar, falling asleep, they achieve the formation of a shiny and thick substance.
- Pouring into it the juice squeezed from half a lemon, resume whipping.
- To get a light pink glaze, just add a drop of cherry syrup to it.
- Cookies decorated with icing are dried in an oven that has cooled down to 50 degrees with the ventilation mode turned on.
“We eat at home”: a recipe for gingerbread cookies from Yulia Vysotskaya
We present to you the best recipe fragrant delicacy offered by the famous Russian TV presenter.
Say7: Gingerbread Cookie Recipe by Anastasia Skripkina
New Year's cookies "gingerbread men" made for children will appeal to them not only because of their excellent taste, but also because of the opportunity to participate in decorating them.
Process sequence:
- First, butter (100 g) is rubbed with the same portions of brown sugar and honey.
- Having kneaded the mixture well, add a combination of spices to it (two teaspoons of cinnamon and ginger powder) and two selected eggs.
- After adding two teaspoons of baking powder, flour (400 g) is added and the dough is kneaded.
- The quality of baking is determined by the thickness of the rolled dough: made from a thin sheet, it will be crispy, from a thicker one - soft.
- In the absence of cuttings, you can take stencils cut out of paper. Putting them on the dough, cut out the outline of the little men with the tip of a knife.
- Bake by lining the pan with parchment paper. thin dough it is difficult to transfer to it, so it is rolled out directly on parchment. After cutting out the figures, the dough trimmings are removed, and the blanks are transferred along with the parchment.
- Baking is done in the oven (temperature 180 degrees). Ten minutes will be enough.
How to decorate gingerbread men? For this, chocolate or sugar icing, confectionery pencil, pearls or sprinkles are usually used.
"Sweet stories": a recipe for gingerbread cookies from Alexander Seleznev
Working process:
“Everything will be delicious”: a recipe for gingerbread cookies from Tatyana Litvinova
Process of creation:
- After grinding 150 grams of chilled butter with a portion of sugar (75 g), add dessert spoon rustic sour cream, a bag of baking powder, ginger (dessert spoon), beat one egg.
- Gradually pouring 300 grams of flour, knead the shortcrust pastry.
- The fragrant semi-finished product is placed in the refrigerator for half an hour.
- After rolling out the chilled dough, cut out small cookies with a glass.
- Baking is done in an oven heated to two hundred degrees. It may take about a quarter of an hour.
- Ready cookies are left for a while, giving them the opportunity to cool.
Decoration:
“Everything will be kind”: a recipe for gingerbread cookies from Lisa Glinskaya:
Spices set:
- Ginger powder - ½ tsp.
- Ground cinnamon - 1 teaspoon.
- Nutmeg - ½ teaspoon.
Cookie preparation:
- First, all dry ingredients are mixed: flour (400 g), a quarter cup of granulated sugar, a set of spices, a bag of baking powder and zest obtained from one lemon and half an orange.
- By adding cubes of chilled vegetable-creamy spread (200 g), butter-flour crumbs are made.
- Having beaten the egg, knead the plastic dough.
- Having made a thick layer of it, it is wrapped in a film and placed in a refrigerator for an hour.
- Funny figures and flowers are cut out of thinly rolled dough.
- They are baked on a baking sheet covered with oiled paper at a temperature of 160 degrees. Ten minutes is enough.
Mastic is prepared like this:
- Gelatin soaked in two tablespoons of water (a teaspoon with a slide) is dissolved the classic way(on a steam bath).
- Melted gelatin, protein, a dessert spoon of lemon juice and the same spoon of vegetable oil are mixed.
- Add 2.5 cups of powdered sugar.
- The mass is first kneaded with a wooden spoon, then kneaded with your hands.
- It is so dense that it can be rolled out with a rolling pin. Taking metal or plastic cuttings, cut out different figures. We decorate cooled cookies with them.
Ikea gingerbread cookies
Cookies "like from Ikea" are prepared as follows:
Spices set:
- Powdered ginger - 2 teaspoons.
- Ground cinnamon and cardamom - 1 teaspoon each.
Cooking instructions:
Christmas honey gingerbread cookies
We offer basic recipe a traditional ginger delicacy that is baked for Christmas in many European countries (recipes with photos are presented in abundance on the Internet).
Spices set:
- Ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon - 1 teaspoon each.
- Beating with a mixer a mixture of softened butter and sugar (taken in 100 grams), add half a glass of liquid honey and a chicken egg. Resume beating.
- Taking a separate bowl, mix a set of spices, salt and soda (half a teaspoon each) in it, sift the mixture and add it to the egg-oil substance.
- Gradually introducing two glasses of flour, knead the plastic dough.
- Putting it in a plastic bag, they clean it in the working chamber of the refrigerator for one hour.
- While the oven is warming up (up to 180 degrees), the chilled semi-finished product is rolled out to a thickness of 0.5 cm and cut into molds. The most popular figurines: sheep, Christmas tree, angel.
- Bake for 15 minutes, after lining a baking sheet with paper.
Creating glaze (icing):
- After whipping the protein until a strong foam is formed, pour in the juice of half a lemon and pour powdered sugar (250 g) in portions.
- The cookies decorated with icing are left for a while, giving it the opportunity to dry.
Gingerbread "Hello New Year"
Homemade gingerbread cookies with such a funny name come out crumbly and tender.
Cooking sequence:
- Grated ginger (50 g) is mixed with softened margarine (250 g) and a glass of sugar.
- After whipping the mixture of components with a mixer, add two egg yolks and a pinch of salt. Continue beating.
- After adding two cups of flour, make a soft dough.
- On a cutting board dusted with flour, it is transformed into a thin sheet. Cut out images of little animals and New Year's symbols.
- Place a cherry in the middle of each cookie.
- Quickly baked in a hot oven.
wedding chocolate gingerbread cookies
Spices:
- Ginger powder - 1.5 teaspoons.
- Ground cloves - ½ teaspoon.
- Nutmeg - on the tip of a spoon.
- Cinnamon - 1 teaspoon.
Cooking steps:
- In a deep bowl, mix 300 g of flour, a mixture of spices, cocoa powder (2 tablespoons) and salt.
- In another container, a fluffy mass is made of sugar (120 g each of brown and regular) and creamy margarine (120 g). After that, the egg is introduced and the beating is resumed.
- After adding 60 g of molasses (black molasses) and a teaspoon of vanilla extract, beat the future dough well again.
- Gradually pouring the spicy flour mixture, get a homogeneous mass.
- Chopped 250 g dark chocolate small pieces, add it to the dough and mix the aromatic substance for the last time.
- Scooping up the dough with a tablespoon, roll up the koloboks and sprinkle them with sugar.
- On a baking sheet they are placed at a considerable distance from each other.
- Bake at 170 degrees for no more than ten minutes (until the koloboks begin to crack).
Lean gingerbread cookies
- Fresh ginger - 2 teaspoons.
- Ground cloves and cinnamon - 1 teaspoon each.
This dessert will appeal to vegetarians as it is baked without eggs and without sugar.
Cooking:
- Liquid ingredients (150 ml water, 7 tablespoons olive oil and 3 st. spoons of liquid honey), a set of spices, a bag of vanillin, salt and a pinch of soda are whipped in a blender.
- After pouring the composition into a saucepan, fall asleep 5 tbsp. spoons of wheat bran and 2.5 cups of flour, knead the dough that does not stick to your hands.
- Small cookies are cut out of the chilled rolled out dough.
- Duration of baking (at a temperature of 180 degrees) no more than 15 minutes.
The beneficial properties of this delicacy, prepared without oil, are due to the benefits of the ingredients that make up the dough.
Products:
- Bran or oat flakes- 5 tbsp. spoons.
- Egg whites - 4 pcs.
- Low-fat cottage cheese - 2 tbsp. spoons.
- Ginger powder - 1.5 tbsp. spoons.
- Honey - 1 teaspoon.
- Vanilla essence - 2 drops.
Creation:
Dukan gingerbread cookies
How to make gingerbread cookies according to Dr. Dukan's recipe? The dough for it is kneaded on water, without honey, sugar and other excesses. That is why such a delicacy can be safely included in a diet for weight loss. However, the benefits and harms of this delicious delicacy is a topic for a separate article.
Components:
- Oat bran - 3 tbsp. spoons.
- Sweetener - 2 tbsp. spoons.
- Dried ginger - dessert spoon.
- Yogurt - 1 teaspoon.
- Protein - ½ pc.
- Baking powder - ½ teaspoon.
- Vanilla essence - 3 drops.
Cooking method:
- Thoroughly mixing the components, get a watery dough. If necessary, you can mix a little more bran into it.
- Putting the dough with a spoon on a baking sheet lined with paper (leaving significant gaps between portions), it is sent to the oven, heated to 180 degrees.
- The baking process will take about 20 minutes. After turning off the oven, leave the cookies in it for another 10 minutes (for drying). Thanks to this manipulation, it will turn out dry, crispy and baked.
Traditional biscuits Swedish recipe Served at Christmas and Easter, it's easy to make at home. 
Manufacturing steps:
- Syrup is made from 150 ml of water, 150 g of honey, 120 g of cane and 50 g of white sugar.
- After turning off the stove, pieces of butter (150 g) are dissolved in the syrup and mixed thoroughly until a homogeneous consistency is obtained.
- After mixing 500 g of flour and a bag of baking powder, they begin to very carefully pour hot sugar-honey syrup into it. The substance is constantly kneaded with a wooden spoon.
- Having achieved the formation of a homogeneous mixture, the dishes are covered with a canvas napkin and left in the refrigerator for several hours.
- The finished semi-finished product is thinly (up to 2 mm) rolled out. The crunchy properties of the final product depend on this.
- Armed with carvings, cut out a variety of figures.
- The baking process takes no more than ten minutes.
Gingerbread: American and English Recipe
We present options for recipes popular with English and American housewives.
American variant
Dessert creation:
- 3 slices of candied ginger are crushed, three are turned into cubes.
- Mixing 300 g of flour, 100 g of sugar, yolk, a pinch of ground ginger, make the dough.
- Wrapped in a film, it is placed on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator for 2 hours.
- Small (4x6 cm in size) rectangles are cut out of the rolled out layer and laid out on a baking dish.
- Having smeared the cookies with beaten yolk, make a powder of ginger cubes.
- Bake for 15 minutes in a preheated oven.
English classic recipe
propagandist English cuisine is the world famous chef Jamie Oliver. Here is one of his favorite recipes. 
Treat making:
- In a mixer, beat a mixture of 50 ml orange juice, 3 teaspoons of honey and 100 g of granulated sugar.
- Having made a gruel from candied ginger pieces, they pour it into a whipped substance.
- After adding the rest of the ingredients to it, knead the dough.
- After standing in the refrigerator, it is rolled out.
- Cookies cut out with a cookie cutter are baked in hot oven. The process takes no more than five minutes.
Gingerbread cookies in a slow cooker
Using a multicooker is a simple and exciting process available to every housewife.
How to decorate gingerbread cookies
Decorating gingerbread cookies, especially for decorating a Christmas tree or given as a gift to loved ones, is a very exciting creative activity.
- Most often it is decorated with multi-colored glaze (icing), and its consistency is different. The contour of the decor is made with a very thick, quickly setting icing.
- Liquid glaze is used to fill the completed contour. It is obtained by breeding thick icing. To do this, add lemon juice drop by drop and continuously stir the composition.
With the help of liquid glaze, you can fill the space between the lines of the outline drawing and decorate the cookies with a bright ornament.
- Nuts, melted chocolate, confectionery pearls, pieces of candied fruit, coconut flakes and all kinds of toppings.
- You can get acquainted with the techniques and secrets of decorating by watching a master class.
Storage and calorie content of gingerbread cookies
Medium the energy value ginger delicacy is 415 kcal. This figure can vary significantly depending on its formulation.
- The ideal container for storing gingerbread cookies are tight-fitting tin boxes. Reputable manufacturers often pack their products in them.
- A good option for home storage of cookies are gripper bags equipped with a hermetically sealed clasp. They will reliably protect the ginger delicacy from high humidity and drying out.
- According to GOST, the optimal shelf life of sugar cookies is three months. Humidity should not exceed 75%.
Do not store it together with products that emit a strong odor.
- Direct sunlight on the cookie bag is also undesirable.
As a symbol of Christmas, gingerbread goes well with hot mulled wine and aromatic tea. In many European countries, there are entire guilds of bakers specializing in baking gingerbread and cookies.
The title of the ginger capital has been deservedly enjoyed by Nuremberg for many centuries. Products of local craftsmen are examples of high baking art and are shown at exhibitions.
Gingerbread Cookie
Gingerbread has been popular in Europe since the time of the Crusades. Since then, European holiday fairs have been called “ginger markets”, and all kinds of incarnations of ginger dough have become mandatory dishes of the Christmas table. Ginger is almost the first spice that was brought from India to Europe, and then it was very expensive. Only rich and noble nobles could afford ginger.
Gingerbread cookies were invented by English monks. In the 11th century, the monk Patrick kneaded the dough in a wooden form, into which he added hot exotic spices. From the dough, he began to mold gingerbread in the form of crosses, angels and monks. Soon the entire monastery was enjoying the delicious gingerbread. The abbot especially liked the cookies, who asked the monk to bake gingerbread cookies for the holiday. The tradition of giving clear shapes to gingerbread appeared already in the 19th century. It was then from ginger dough began to create architectural masterpieces - entire gingerbread towns. In every European country, Christmas gingerbread cookies are an indispensable attribute of the winter holidays.
400 g flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp soda
120 g butter
200 g sugar
4 tbsp. l. honey
1 egg
HOW TO COOK:
1. Sift flour and spices. Add slaked soda, then softened butter, mix with sugar and heat until sugar dissolves and pour into flour mixture, add honey, then add a beaten egg.
2. Knead the dough until smooth.
3. Roll out the dough into a layer 5 mm thick, cut out different figures.
4. Bake for 20 minutes at 200°C. Cookies decorate with protein-drawing mass. Outline the contours of the figures with a white mass from the cornet, then tint it and decorate the middle.
Alexander Seleznev, confectioner, host of the Sweet Stories program
CHRISTMAS GINGER COOKIES RECIPE
NECESSARY:
250 g flour
1 st. l. ground ginger
1 st. l. cinnamon
½ st. l. carnations
2 tbsp. l. liquid honey
250 g brown sugar
200 g butter
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
HOW TO COOK:
1. Mix flour with spices and baking powder.
2. Mix eggs with butter, honey and sugar, add flour with spices to the egg mass.
3. Roll out a layer from the dough and cut out cookies using a cookie cutter.
4. Sprinkle cookies with sugar and send to a preheated oven 180 g for 30 minutes. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and grease it with oil.
gingerbread popular in Europe since the Crusades. Since then, European holiday fairs have been called “ginger markets”, and all kinds of incarnations of ginger dough have become mandatory dishes of the Christmas table. Ginger is almost the first spice that was brought from India to Europe, and then it was very expensive. Only rich and noble nobles could afford ginger.
Gingerbread Cookie invented by English monks. In the 11th century, the monk Patrick kneaded the dough in a wooden form, into which he added hot exotic spices. From the dough, he began to mold gingerbread in the form of crosses, angels and monks. Soon delicious gingerbread cookies the whole monastery enjoyed. The abbot especially liked the cookies, who asked the monk to bake gingerbread cookies for the holiday. The tradition of giving clear shapes to gingerbread appeared already in the 19th century. It was then that architectural masterpieces began to be created from ginger dough - entire gingerbread towns. In every European country, Christmas gingerbread cookies are an indispensable attribute of the winter holidays.
In England, soft loaves are also baked from ginger dough, which are eaten with butter, cream or sour cream. It is very tasty and high in calories - but for winter, when the body requires abundant nutrition, it is the most suitable and healthy option.
gopartydecor.com
Alexander Seleznev
international confectioner, host of the Sweet Stories program
I make simple gingerbread cookies like this:
Ingredients:
400 g flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon of soda
120 g butter
200 g sugar
4 tbsp. honey spoon
1 egg
HOW TO COOK:
Sift flour and spices. Add slaked soda, then softened butter, mix with sugar and heat until sugar dissolves and pour into flour mixture, add honey, then add a beaten egg.
Knead the dough until smooth. Roll out the dough into a layer 5 mm thick, cut out different figures.
Bake for 20 minutes at 200°C. Decorate the finished cookies with protein-drawing mass.
Outline the contours of the figures with a white mass from the cornet, then tint it and decorate the middle.
