Soft icing glaze for gingerbread 500g

It’s hard to imagine a sweetness more atmospheric than gingerbread with glaze: just look at the photo to feel this spicy smell, hear the delicious crunch and get into the holiday mood. Of course, such cookies are incredibly popular in the winter, but in the summer you will get no less pleasure from tea with aromatic homemade gingerbread. All that remains is to find out how to make this culinary ambition a reality!

Required Ingredients

For the test

For the glaze

Powdered sugar – 100 g.
Lemon juice (fresh) – 40 ml.

Choosing the ingredients

Premium flour
is suitable for any sweet baked goods It is of the finest grind, so the dough from it turns out to be the most tender.
Honey is the main ingredient of this dish; the aroma of gingerbread depends on its taste. It should be sweet, but not cloying. If the product is too sweet, it means it is either diluted with sugar, or the beekeeper fed his bees with sugar syrup. Honey remains liquid for a little over a month, then it begins to crystallize. Therefore, in winter there cannot be natural liquid honey.

When you choose spices, pay attention to the expiration date. When you print out the bag, look for any lumps in the ground spices. If there is, it means they were stored at the wrong humidity and temperature. A high-quality product should be crumbly, without foreign inclusions.

The butter in this recipe can be replaced with margarine. When choosing it, also look at the product labeling.
When choosing cocoa powder, the right scent plays an important role.
It should have a chocolate aroma without any extraneous notes. If the cocoa has no odor, then the product is definitely expired.
Powdered sugar is very easy to choose; as a rule, it is not counterfeited or added with foreign impurities. But you still need to inspect the packaging to ensure there are no tears or damage. If the powder has been in contact with air, it may have lumps. And there is a high probability that it will be saturated with the smell of the store or warehouse where it was stored.

Storage methods

If you want to keep gingerbread soft and fresh for several weeks, then take care to comply with the storage conditions.

Optimal conditions: air temperature +18°C and humidity no more than 75%, away from sunlight. Do not store cookies next to foods that have a specific odor.

Due to the large amount of sugar in the composition, gingerbread dough absorbs moisture well and releases it in a dry room. Therefore, it will not be possible to preserve finished products without packaging for a long time. If the air is dry, they will become stale, and if the air is humid, they will become damp.

Attention. In the refrigerator, gingerbread dough products and frozen icing will become damp due to changes in humidity.

After cooling, the gingerbreads are transferred to tightly closed packaging: a container with a lid, a tin box or a bag. In this case, a microclimate is created inside the container and the gingerbread retains its freshness and aroma.

When storing gingerbread cookies and cookies made from ginger dough for a long time, take into account the following features:

The baked goods retain their bright taste and aroma for the first 3-4 weeks from the moment of production; after this period, the gingerbread cookies will no longer be so tasty.
The optimal storage temperature is +18°С…+23°С. At higher rates, the cookies will begin to get stale.
The optimal humidity in the storage area is 75%. Drier air will cause the product to dry out, while humid air will cause it to become damp.
When exposed to heat and sunlight, the glaze will begin to melt and the product will spoil.
The container in which the sweets are stored must have a tight-fitting lid.

Cooking sequence

Preparing the dough
Mix part of the flour with the egg. Add sugar, butter and honey. You can add lemon zest. Mix everything well.
Add spices to the resulting butter-sugar mixture. Stir well again with a whisk so that the spice powder is evenly distributed. To prepare these gingerbread cookies, I take fresh ginger, grate it on a fine grater and add it to the dough.
Following the spices, add salt and cocoa. Then sift the flour to saturate it with oxygen. Knead a fairly soft dough. We leave it to “rest” for several hours.
Cutting out figures
Roll out the dough and cut out figures from it using a mold. You can also use a glass for this purpose or try cutting with a knife.
Did you know? To prevent the dough from sticking to the rolling pin, you can place a sheet of parchment paper on it and roll it through it. It will be much neater this way.
Baking:
Bake for about 15 minutes.
To bake these gingerbread cookies, you need to heat the oven to 200 degrees.
Don't forget to line the baking sheet with baking paper (parchment paper) or grease it with some oil.
Icing
The glaze for gingerbread is easy to make. You need to mix powdered sugar with a small amount of fresh lemon juice. Do not rush to pour out all the juice at once; the glaze may become too liquid. Pour the juice into the powder and stir gradually until the glaze reaches the desired consistency.
Decoration
Place the icing in a paper or cellophane bag. Cut a hole in it and decorate the gingerbread cookies with any patterns.

Video recipe for making gingerbread with icing

I suggest watching this video recipe for making gingerbread.

We received so many letters asking us to tell them how we prepare gingerbread and teach us how to do it the same way, that we wanted to put together all the knowledge we had acquired over a long period of work. Therefore, we announce the launch of our online school and invite you to take part in the first course, detailed information .

Attention: there is a lot of self-irony in the article;) All points of view expressed in the text are the author’s and do not pretend to be objective.

The Internet is now full of offers for making handmade gingerbread (as a rule, we are talking about gingerbread with glaze painting) from market giants like Tula gingerbread, from smaller companies positioning themselves as specialized production (i.e., like us), from various kinds of confectionery shops that succumbed to the gingerbread revolution, and, finally, from a huge number of private craftsmen who spend nights painting hordes of snowmen and Christmas trees in their kitchens during the New Year period (there are many of these at the Crafts Fair and on Instagram).

When faced with a gingerbread souvenir for the first time, a potential buyer is usually inspired - gingerbread cookies look very beautiful, unusual, fresh, and most importantly, they are made by hand, and this is still a trend.

What disappointments and, conversely, unexpectedly pleasant surprises await a consumer who decides to place an order for handmade gingerbread on the Internet?

Let's talk about the good stuff first;)

TOP 10 rave reviews:

Gingerbread cookies are very beautiful, is it possible to eat such beauty?!

I thought that gingerbread cookies were inedible, but they turned out to be delicious!

The gingerbread cookies are unexpectedly large; on the website they seemed much smaller, and in reality they look even better!

It turns out that you can make gingerbread in the shape of almost anything. We ordered our friends a copy of their home, it turned out very cool!

Gingerbread can be stored for a long time (up to six months) without special conditions.

Gingerbread is well transported, even to other cities and countries.

Gingerbread cookies can be hung on the Christmas tree and then eaten.

You can make gingerbread cookies in the form of wedding bonbonnieres and write the names of the guests on them.

Read also: How to store cherries

Illuminated gingerbread houses are something unreal. My child was absolutely delighted!

10.

We ordered for school and the question is who was more delighted - the children or the parent committee :).

And now about the negative. Below are the most common criticisms of gingerbread:

(in fairness, we note that the criticism applies to many manufacturers):

1) Gingerbread cookies are very hard, stale, dried out, impossible to eat.

The remark is not entirely unfounded. Compared to our original Russian honey gingerbreads with filling, gingerbread with painted glaze can indeed be quite tough. Or rather, they are very dense and more like cookies than gingerbread. The fault here is partly the translation from English gingerbread - literally “ginger bread”, in Russian translation - gingerbread. At European and American Christmas markets, gingerbread and gingerbread houses are a traditional treat and decoration. And, believe me, they are almost made of stone. German lebkuchen does not seem to be intended for food at all. What is this connected with? The answer is simple - with a recipe. In order for the gingerbread cookies to hold their shape during baking and not spread, the dough should be quite tight.

The icing on gingerbread cookies is also very hard—essentially congealed egg whites and sugar. BUT! This does not mean that gingerbread is inedible. Very edible, especially with tea;)

And, of course, there is one trick: to make the gingerbreads softer, place them in a tightly closed container along with a piece of bread and an orange peel... After a day, the gingerbreads will gain moisture and become softer!

2) The glaze colors the tongue! (“And in general, I thought that the yellow frosting was lemon, and the red frosting was strawberry…”)

For those who don’t know, natural food coloring (like beet or cherry juice) cannot produce a bright, rich color. When painting gingerbread cookies (believe me, 90% of those on sale) artificial gel food colors are used. And yes, they color the tongue. By the way, bright mastic cakes or green or blue candies also color the tongue. Edible gouache also colors the tongue. But this does not mean that all these products are inedible.

To avoid staining your tongue, choose gingerbread cookies with white icing or check with the manufacturer about the origin of the dye. By the way, bright icing with a fruity taste is in 99% of cases a dye plus an artificial flavor.

3) Why are gingerbread cookies so small?

Indeed, gingerbread cookies are usually quite short - about half a centimeter, and the size in width and length can reach 15 cm; with a larger size, gingerbread cookies very often crack. If you want to order a tall and large gingerbread, it is better to opt for gingerbread with filling. On our website we indicate the sizes of gingerbread cookies and gift sets on the individual page of each product.

4) Why are there no fillings in gingerbread cookies?

Because you obviously ordered gingerbread cookies, which don't have any filling.

5) Over time, the glaze fell off the gingerbread cookies.

This happens if you store gingerbread cookies in open and dry air - the culprit is the high dryness of the air. This often happens if the packaging is not airtight (although very beautiful).

6) Why is it so expensive?

A common complaint: “The gingerbread is only 10 cm in size, but costs 100 rubles, what kind of golden gingerbread is this, I can buy a whole kilogram in the store for 100 rubles?!” The reason for this “blatant injustice” is the manual labor of bakers, artists and packers.

However, we note that some manufacturers sell gingerbread at a very high markup, even for a product with a high cost, such as handmade gingerbread. Often the price for the same gingerbread from different manufacturers can differ by 2-3 times. Is it really true that where it is more expensive, better and of higher quality, you need to understand each specific case, but in 50% of cases the inflated price compared to competitors is not justified in any way (competitors, if anything happens, forgive me! ;)).

7) Why such small discounts? We order 5 thousand gingerbread cookies, give us at least a 50% discount.

Making 10 different gingerbreads is indeed more difficult than 10 identical ones, but the difference between twenty and two thousand identical ones is not so obvious, because... Each gingerbread still does not draw itself. Moreover, for circulations of thousands, we even thought about making a markup, because... you need to have serious perseverance and an iron nervous system to spend 8 hours a week drawing identical snowmen or ducks.

The gingerbread cookies are not at all the same as on the website/photo.

9) I can make gingerbread cookies better myself.

Great!

10) I gave gingerbread to my six-month-old child, and he developed an allergy, what do you put in gingerbread???

Please do not give gingerbread to small children - they contain spices, and the icing contains dry protein and dyes, which can cause allergies.

So, as you can see, everything depends on the expectations of the buyer, who is often confused about what product he is ordering.

To avoid disappointment from the purchase, check all the details with the manufacturers in advance.

For example, when placing an order at Cookie Craft, you can come and see/try samples of gingerbread in advance; the tasting is absolutely free.

We also want to say that by ordering handmade gingerbread from domestic manufacturers, you give the opportunity to work for girls (and sometimes boys) artisans who love manual labor, try, give their best and are very happy when the customer is satisfied (and are sad if anything happens). - that's not true).

All the best and delicious (and beautiful) gingerbread!

Your Cookie Craft.

PS For those who are not accustomed to respecting copyrights, any reprinting of this text or its excerpt is prohibited without the written permission of the project management.

What is the shelf life of gingerbread? They can be stored for quite a long time. And as culinary experts note, the shelf life of gingerbread with handmade glaze can reach 3 months.

The shelf life of gingerbread is determined by the fact that it contains natural preservatives. In particular, we are talking about such natural substances as:

Sugar and honey. Suffice it to recall the same frozen honey or candied jam, which can be stored for a long time. In this case, gingerbread cookies retain their quality and appearance precisely due to the natural preservatives included in the honey, and I’m not even afraid to say – antibiotics.
The presence of special spices in the ginger dough. This is ginger, pepper, cloves or cinnamon. They not only provide flavor, but also allow the confectionery product not to spoil for a long time. Here spices also act as preservatives, suppressing the growth of rot and fungi.

If we talk about how long ginger dough is stored in refrigerators, then it is allowed to stand or, as confectioners say, to mature for 1-2 days, nothing more. After all, even due to the honey, spices and sugar it contains, this is still the basis of gingerbread, but not a finished product that has undergone heat treatment.

But it is worth remembering that gingerbread with handmade glaze can be stored for a shorter time, and only if a number of conditions are met.

Answering the question, how long can homemade gingerbread cookies with glaze be stored - from 1 to 3 months. But it's all about the glaze, made from whipped egg whites and sugar. It is very capricious and can lie on a confectionery product for a long time, but under certain conditions. And how long can store-bought gingerbread with icing last? It’s a long time if you store it correctly.

Gingerbread is one of the traditional sweets for the Christmas holidays. They are decorated with glaze, cut out with various molds, and experimented with spices.

The simplest classic gingerbread recipe can be prepared by anyone, even without any experience in baking.

List of components:

150 g cream oils;
60 grams of honey;
0.25 kg sugar;
2 eggs;
1 tsp each ground cinnamon, ginger root, soda;
flour (the quantity is based on the condition of the dough).

Step by step steps:

To prepare, use an enamel saucepan. Mix butter, honey, sugar, eggs, spices in a container. Heat the contents over medium heat, stirring with a spatula. When the sugar dissolves, add soda. If the contents burn or stick, it is better to reduce the heat to minimum. Heat for a couple more minutes and set aside to cool. 15 minutes will be enough.
Add flour little by little to the liquid mixture, sifting through a sieve in small parts. Knead first with a spatula, and when the dough becomes thick enough, knead on a table or board. Add as much flour as needed to obtain an airy, manageable dough.
Cut off a little and roll out to 7 mm. Use cookie cutters to cut out gingerbread cookies. Repeat with all the dough.
Place the gingerbread pieces on a baking sheet. Keep a distance of 1 cm between the cookies - the gingerbread cookies may stick together when they go in the oven.
Bake at 180°C for 10-12 minutes. Leave to cool for 10 minutes and the dessert is ready to serve.

Shelf life

The shelf life of a gingerbread house and other products made from ginger dough is at least 3 months. This long period is due to the fact that gingerbread dough contains natural preservatives - honey, sugar and spices.

Attention. By adding ginger, cinnamon, pepper, and cloves to the dough, you will not only give the products an extraordinary aroma and taste, but also extend their shelf life.

The shelf life of gingerbread cookies with glaze is also at least 3 months. Sugar icing, or icing, consists primarily of sugar, so after drying on the gingerbread it does not deteriorate for a long time.

How to store gingerbread dough

The dough for making gingerbread is stored in the refrigerator or freezer. The dough, wrapped in cling film and placed in a container, can be stored in the refrigerator for no more than 3 days.

When frozen, the product retains its properties for 2-3 months. Defrost it gradually, transferring it to the refrigerator a day before baking.

How to store gingerbread icing

Icing is a glaze for decorating gingerbread dough products. It is prepared from egg whites and sugar (powdered sugar). In a metal bowl, beat the chilled egg whites with powdered sugar until stiff peaks form.

Store the glaze in the refrigerator in a tightly closed container. It is undesirable to transfer icing from one container to another, so it is better to immediately prepare it in a container that can be tightly closed with a lid.

Advice. If you plan to store the glaze, add a little lemon juice to it when preparing it. Then the foam will be more stable.

It is almost impossible to keep the protein foam as strong as it was at the time of preparation. Therefore, be prepared for the fact that the icing will become more liquid during storage.

How long can gingerbread icing be stored in the refrigerator? The shelf life of the finished product is no more than 3 days.

Kozuli - Arkhangelsk gingerbread

An ancient recipe for Arkhangelsk gingerbread, the list of ingredients of which does not include traditional honey.

Grocery list:

850 g flour;
200 g cream oils;
2 cups sugar;
2 yolks;
1 protein;
3 tsp spices for sweet baking;
1 tsp soda;
¾ cup water;
200 grams of sweet powder;
2 grams of salt.

Step by step steps:

First of all, prepare the caramel: pour half the sugar into a dry container and cook until dark brown. At the same time, heat the kettle. When the caramel becomes dark, add boiling water and continue cooking. Be sure to stir so it doesn't burn. Wait until the caramel is completely dissolved, add the remaining sugar and cook until everything is dissolved. Afterwards you can remove it from the stove and add the oil and spices. Stir and leave to cool.
In a separate container, beat two yolks. When the caramel mixture becomes barely warm, pour in the yolks, add salt, add soda and stir thoroughly.
Gradually sift the flour, stirring, and when it thickens, do it by hand. Add the product until the mixture thickens.
Wrap the sausage dough in cling film and place in the refrigerator for 12 hours. The dough will become firm and easy to cut. Cut off a small piece, roll it out to 1 cm and squeeze out future gingerbread cookies with a glass or special shaped molds. You can also make stencil cutouts from cardboard and, applying the figure to the dough, trace it with a sharp knife.
Bake for 5-7 minutes at 200 degrees.
Mix 1 egg white with powder, pour into a cream envelope and decorate the gingerbread cookies.

Gingerbread cookies must cool completely before decorating. Then the cream will lie well and harden with clear contours.

Pairs perfectly with black tea with cream or coffee with almond flavor.

Gingerbread with glaze: traditional recipe

Gingerbread requires the addition of many different spices. Only traditional choux pastry is used - otherwise it will be ordinary gingerbread:

2 tsp each of ground ginger root, cinnamon, lemon juice;
160 g sugar;
2 eggs;
3 tbsp honey;
5 cups flour;
1 teaspoon each of soda, cardamom, star anise;
5 egg whites;
1 package of colored glaze;
220 grams of powder;
200 g nutmeg.

Manufacturing:

The dough is steamed: first combine honey, butter and sugar in a bowl. Stirring with a spatula, bring the contents to a paste. Add salt and stir again.
Grind all the spices thoroughly. You can combine them together and pass them through a coffee grinder, and then sift through a sieve. Add to the mixture and mix well. After a few minutes, remove and leave covered for a quarter of an hour.
Sift ½ of the flour into the dough and pour in the eggs, mix well and gradually add the rest of the flour. Wrap the entire dough in cling film and chill in the refrigerator for 4 hours.
Roll out the dough to 1.5-2 cm and squeeze out the figures. Place on a baking sheet and bake for ten minutes.
Roll out the icing and cut out cookie shapes. Mix powder with 1 egg white.

Leave the gingerbreads to cool for a couple of hours, then cover them with glaze patterns. Gingerbread with glaze can be put into a holiday box and given to friends, and sweets painted with colored glaze will delight little sweet tooths.

Recipe for 8 beautiful gingerbread cookies for the holiday with photos

Fragrant, tasty, cheerful. The design process will bring great pleasure to both children and adults.

flour (heaped) - 1 cup;
butter - 100 g;
sugar - 0.5 cup;
egg - 1 piece;
baking powder - 1.5 tsp;
cocoa powder - 1 tsp;
ground ginger - 1 tsp;
ground cinnamon - 0.5 tsp;
salt (pinch);
egg white (for glaze) - 1 pc;
powdered sugar (for glaze) - 0.5 cups;
lemon juice (for glaze) - 1 tbsp;

Sift flour, baking powder, cocoa, ginger, cinnamon through a sieve. Add the butter crushed with a knife into crumbs. Add sugar, add egg, quickly knead the dough.

Roll into a ball, wrap in cling film, and place in the refrigerator for 1.5-2 hours.

Roll out the chilled dough on a floured table into a layer 7-8 mm thick.

Apply paper stencils (or use shaped cutters) and cut out the gingerbread cookies. Place the gingerbread cookies on a floured baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 180°C.

Beat the cooled egg whites with a mixer into a stable foam. Continuing to beat, add powdered sugar and lemon juice in small portions. Beat for another 15-20 seconds. If desired, you can add food coloring to the glaze.

Custard gingerbread recipe

A delicious and aromatic recipe for homemade custard gingerbreads based on Russian motifs, complemented with lemon glaze.

Products:

½ citrus;
3 tbsp powdered sugar;
200 grams of wheat flour;
50 grams of rye flour;
250 grams of May honey;
1 egg yolk;
80 ml milk;
1.5 tbsp sugar;
4 pieces of cardamom;
6 dry cloves;
2 pieces of star anise;
1 tsp each of cinnamon and soda.

Step-by-step preparation:

Heat honey until bubbles appear.
Peel cardamom, combine with other spices, grind everything in a convenient way - by hand or using kitchen utensils. Mix the spice mixture with rye flour and add to honey. Also add baking soda. Stir the contents constantly.
Add 100 grams of wheat flour to the mixture and mix again.
Separately, combine the yolk with sour cream, sugar and milk, beat with a mixer. Then add it to the honey preparation and stir thoroughly. Add the last of the flour and prepare the gingerbread dough. The consistency of the dough is slightly liquid.
Cover the baking dish with a thin layer of butter. Place the dough in a mold and bake in a preheated oven. Then cut out gingerbread cookies from the finished cake using molds. Dry the finished gingerbread cookies in the oven for another 5-7 minutes.
Mix a little juice with powdered sugar. For thickness, you can beat with a mixer for a few minutes. Use the resulting glaze to paint the cooled gingerbread cookies.

gingerbread house

An interesting gingerbread option for the winter holidays would be a gingerbread house. This dessert presentation will definitely not leave either children or adults indifferent.

For the test:

130 g cream oils;
½ cup sugar;
60 ml sweet syrup or molasses;
2 cups flour;
2 tbsp water;
1 teaspoon each of cinnamon, ginger root, cloves, soda.

For the glaze:

2 squirrels;
500 grams of powdered sugar;
1-1.5 tbsp freshly squeezed citrus juice;
For decoration, take multi-colored sprinkles, sugar candies, marmalades, etc.

Sequencing:

First prepare the dough: mix butter, syrup and spices. You can use a mixer to quickly remove dense lumps. Add water and flour, knead the dough. Wrap in film and place in the refrigerator for an hour.
Roll out the dough to a thickness of 3-4 mm, sprinkling with flour to eliminate stickiness.
Cut out templates from cardboard - a roof, walls with cut out windows and a door. Place the templates on the dough and cut out the pieces. Transfer the dough pieces onto baking paper.
Crush sugar candies with a rolling pin and sprinkle on the areas where the windows will be. The remaining dough can be turned into gingerbread cookies.
Bake for 10 minutes at 180°C.
Prepare “cement” from powdered sugar, egg whites and a few drops of juice. The glaze can be beaten with a mixer until it becomes thick enough for further drawing of the ornament. Place the mixture in a pastry bag and glue the baked walls of the house. Use the remaining glaze to decorate cookies and houses. Before the glaze has time to harden, sprinkle the roof of the house with coconut shavings, colored sprinkles, and decorate with marmalade.

You can serve the gingerbread house with cocoa with milk or green tea.

On a note. You can decorate a house on the holiday table as follows: place a culinary work of art on a flat dish, arrange marshmallows, marmalade and sweet candies (for example, m&m`s) around it, and inside the house place a small candlestick with a lid on top so that the wax does not settle on the baked goods.

Exemplary gingerbread cookies in just an hour and a half

If you think that an hour and a half is a long time, let us remind you that the dough usually spends about 2 hours in the refrigerator alone, not to mention the labor-intensive rolling or painstaking mixing of ingredients. How to meet the deadline, what ingredients to buy, and how to do everything right? Let's tell you in order.

What will you need?

250g flour (plus some for adjustment)
100 g butter,
1 egg
50 g honey,
100 g sugar,
1 tsp baking powder,
2 tsp ground ginger,
1 tsp cinnamon,
a pinch of nutmeg.

Without coloring with cocoa, the color of the gingerbread cookies will be something like this:

Secret: In all the photos, the gingerbread cookies are brown, but it is very difficult to achieve this color without coloring. Usually they add a little cocoa to the cookies or use brown sugar instead of white - this will make the color more saturated. Although the combination of honey + cinnamon gives a beautiful golden hue, which intensifies as it cools, we recommend preparing the first batch without coloring.

What to do?

Christmas gingerbread

The oil should be very soft, but not liquid, so you won’t be able to use a microwave or water bath. It is advisable to leave it to warm up at room temperature for about an hour in advance.
If the honey is not liquid, you need to melt it in a water bath. You can also microwave it, just make sure it doesn’t boil.
Now grind the butter and sugar with a fork, pour the egg and honey into the mixture and mix. The honey should not be hot, otherwise the egg will curdle!
Separately mix flour, baking powder and spices. We leave the sifting to your discretion: if you thoroughly mix the ingredients, the difference in the taste of the finished gingerbread cookies will be noticeable only to special connoisseurs.
Gradually stir the dry mixture into the oil mixture until large pellets form. It’s quite convenient to do this with a fork rather than a mixer, although here you have to decide on your preferences.
Large crumbs should easily form a ball, the consistency of which will be slightly reminiscent of marzipan. If the dough crumbles or spreads, don't be afraid to deviate from the recipe by adding a little butter or flour.

Proper gingerbread dough does not stretch and has a consistency similar to marzipan

Now we make a pancake out of the dough, wrap it in film and put it in the refrigerator for 40 minutes. In this form, the dough will cool faster and will be easier to roll out. By the way, if there is too much dough, it can be stored in the freezer for several months!
After 40 minutes the dough can be rolled out. This is best done between two sheets of baking paper, but the good old method of flouring your rolling pin and countertop will also work. The thickness of our gingerbread cookies is about half a centimeter.
We cut out the cookies using a mold, remove the excess dough, transfer the blanks onto baking paper using a knife and repeat the rolling again with the remaining dough. It may take 4 or 5 such passes until all the prepared dough is utilized. By the way, do not spread the cookies too tightly, because they will increase in size a little in the oven.
The baking tray with the cookies is placed in a well-heated oven at 180˚, where they are baked for 5 to 12 minutes: the time greatly depends on the thickness of the gingerbread and your preference for softness or crispiness. In general, once the edges begin to brown, the cookies are ready and can be removed.

Right out of the oven, the baked goods are indeed very similar to fluffy and soft gingerbread cookies, but as they cool, the cookies settle and harden a little, becoming cookie-like. So, when you want to keep the cookies in the oven for an extra 2-3 minutes, keep in mind that with tea, you may not be eating gingerbread, but almost a cracker.

Interesting: The shelf life of any cookies, even homemade ones, is several months, but, of course, over time the aroma will go away and the dough will become stale. It's useful to know how long gingerbread can last, but it's even better to make enough of it to realistically eat in about a week.

Recipe for cooking with honey

A simple recipe for quick honey gingerbread for tea. Delicious and fragrant gingerbread cookies can be prepared in just half an hour:

honey - 1 tbsp;
sour cream - 100 gr;
creamy butter - 75 g;
soda - ½ tsp;
sugar - 100 g;
flour - 250-300 gr.

Sequencing:

First you need to melt the butter. Can be done in the microwave at the lowest temperature or in a small saucepan on the stove.
Pour the melted butter into a separate container, add all the ingredients except flour. Stir until a homogeneous paste is obtained.
Add flour little by little to prepare the dough. The dough will be soft and pliable to the touch.
Roll into balls by hand and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 180°C and bake the gingerbread cookies for a quarter of an hour.

Honey gingerbread cookies have an appetizing golden hue and a crispy crust. Pairs perfectly with any hot drinks.

As a rule, gingerbread cookies are decorated with icing. With its help, baked goods are decorated with a variety of patterns, and if you add food coloring to them, the ornament will also be multi-colored. We suggest preparing royal icing for painting cookies and gingerbread.

Ingredients for glaze:

1 egg white;
200 grams of powdered sugar;
1 tsp corn starch;
½ tsp citric acid or 1.5 citrus juice.

Scheme for preparing royal icing:

Add finely ground powder to the protein and mix well with a silicone spoon or spatula.
Add starch, which gives the glaze plasticity. Then add juice, which speeds up the drying of the cream.
Beat the glaze with a mixer at the lowest speed until it becomes dense. Three minutes is enough. Thick glaze is convenient for drawing patterns. If you plan to fill the background, slightly dilute some of the glaze with water. The readiness of the fill is determined by its ability to smooth out - if the surface after mixing becomes smooth within 8-10 seconds, then the fill is ready.

If desired, add food coloring to the glaze. It is important to keep the product tightly closed at all times, otherwise it will start to dry out.

On a note. Food coloring should be added 1-2 drops at a time, stirring constantly to adjust the brightness of the shade. Coloring is done only for thick glazes.

Protein option

The glaze on the whites turns out snow-white, but it will require a little more effort from you. But if you are not too lazy to carry out this experiment, the cookies will turn out simply fascinating, like from the pages of culinary magazines!

For a dense contour glaze, beat the mixture at maximum speed of the mixer.

What will you need?

150 g powdered sugar.
1 egg.
Food coloring optional.

What to do?

Separate the white from the yolk using any method known to you. The main thing is that the yolk does not get into our mixture. Now gradually pour the powder into the egg whites, beating with a mixer at high speed. When a drop of glaze holds its shape, you can begin painting.

Tip: If you want to fill rather than outline, just make the glaze thinner. Just keep in mind that the filling takes longer to dry than the outline, and it is better to leave such cookies to dry overnight, especially if you plan to transport them.

Well, all that remains is to put the icing in a special confectionery bag or a regular plastic bag, cut off the spout and give free rein to your imagination. Good luck with your experiments and delicious gingerbread!

Ideas for decorating the finished dish

Each housewife decorates the finished gingerbread cookies in her own way.

Popular simple design options:

Using thick glaze, the outline of the gingerbread is outlined in a pastry bag, and then painted over with liquid filling. Moreover, the outline can be colored, and the fill can be snow-white;
the decoration is repeated as in the previous version, but on the filled background it is decorated with a pattern of colored glaze;
With icing in a pastry bag, various ornaments, stripes, circles and dots are drawn all over the gingerbread.
The gingerbread is simply poured over the filling and sprinkled with colored sprinkles, chocolate chips and coconut flakes.

Based on the basic options, you can come up with your own unique design for homemade gingerbread cookies, which will pleasantly surprise your family and guests.

Lately I have often been asked the question: how long can gingerbread be stored?

Is it possible for a week? How about two? How about three weeks? And nothing will happen to him?

Therefore, let's look at this issue in detail and dot all the i's.

Gingerbread cookies can be stored for a very long time

. This is not a cream cake for you.

Some gingerbread makers claim that gingerbread has a shelf life of 6 months. And in Europe there was a tradition when gingerbread given for Christmas was eaten the next Christmas.

I haven’t tried storing gingerbread for half a year, much less a year, but I conducted an experiment and specifically stored gingerbread for 3 months. Exactly 3 months later, my family and I solemnly ate it, making sure that it perfectly preserved both freshness and aroma.

So why do our gingerbread cookies last so long? - you ask. After all, we didn’t add preservatives to them, everything is natural. And since it’s natural, it should deteriorate.

It's actually simple.

Gingerbread dough contains a lot of natural

preservatives.

First of all, it's sugar and honey.

. Yes, of course, sugar and honey are natural preservatives, we all know this and make jam with sugar))).

Secondly, these are our gingerbread spices (

Read more about spices): ginger, pepper, cloves, etc. In addition to the fact that they give us wonderful aromas, they also act as natural preservatives and prevent gingerbread from spoiling.

Sugar icing is essentially also sugar, so after drying on the gingerbread it also does not spoil for a very long time.

If I put an end to this and ended my story, I would be wrong. There is one serious “But”.

Gingerbread cookies can dry out if stored for a long time. Indeed, due to the large amount of sugars, gingerbread dough is very hygroscopic. This means that it readily gives up moisture in a dry environment and absorbs moisture in a humid environment.

That is, if you put gingerbread in a saucer, and the saucer is on the table in your apartment, and the heating season is in full swing and the air in our apartments is dry, then within a day your gingerbread will become dry and stale.

Therefore, everything that I said about 3 months, half a year and a year is applicable only if you store the gingerbread in a tightly closed package: a container with a tight lid, an unopened box or a bag. In this case, the package creates its own microclimate and the gingerbread is quietly stored there, maintaining freshness and aroma.

Gingerbread does not need to be stored in the refrigerator; humidity changes are not necessary. In addition, the icing on the gingerbread in the refrigerator can become damp.

All your gingerbread needs is a tightly closed package and no direct sunlight.

But if your gingerbread is dry, it’s easy to fix. The gingerbread should be placed in a bag and the chopped apple should be placed in the same bag. And tie the bag (close it). The apple will give off moisture, and the gingerbread will gratefully absorb it and we will become fresh again.

I hope I convinced you)))

Conditions for preserving the freshness and taste of gingerbread

Gingerbread is known to last quite a long time. If there is a holiday coming up, you can safely order the delicacy several days or weeks in advance, it will not spoil.

In this case, a number of conditions must be met:

Storage temperature is 10-12 degrees. If stored at 18 degrees (±5), the product will also be stored for a long time, but will remain fresh for a couple of weeks if other conditions are met.
The storage location for gingerbread cookies should be located away from heat sources (stove, radiator) and direct sunlight.
Ginger cookies should be kept at optimal air humidity so that the product does not dry out. At the same time, water that gets on the gingerbread can ruin it.
For storage, the dessert is wrapped in cling film or placed in an airtight container.
Products with a strong or specific odor should not be stored near treats.
Spices (cloves, cinnamon and others) in the gingerbread dough, as well as honey, allow the delicacy to be stored for up to several months. The true taste of ginger cookies is revealed a week after preparation.

It is worth remembering: gingerbread cannot be stored in the refrigerator for long periods of time.