Spice Cookies

Hey foodies!

It's Christmas cookie season!!!! I'm sure you're already thinking about it or have already made some!

The whole house smells amazing and with a little coffee or a mandarin it's the perfect snack!

So here's a recipe straight from the USA. These are spice cookies — a kind of reinvented gingerbread.

I decorated these cookies with royal icing to make them super cute. The kids loved helping me out.

Here are the ingredients you'll need:

Cookie dough

- 115gr of butter at room temperature

- 165gr of brown sugar

- 2 tsp of ground ginger

- 1 tsp of vanilla extract

- 1 tsp of cinnamon

- 1 tsp of baking soda

- 1/2 tsp of salt

- 1 mandarin zest

- 1/2 grated tonka bean

- 170gr of molasses

- 1 egg

- 390gr of flour

Decoration

- 1 packet of royal icing mix

- 1 or 2 1 mm piping tips

- 1 small coupler

- 1 packet of 30 cm piping bags

Cookie dough

Start by beating 115gr of butter at room temperature with 165gr of brown sugar.

Once the two ingredients are well mixed together, add 2 tsp of ground ginger.

Add 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1 tsp of baking soda.

Then add 1 tsp of vanilla extract, 1/2 tsp of salt and mix again.

Then grate 1 mandarin zest and 1/2 tonka bean. Use your magic grater for this.

Mix again but this time with the flat beater attachment (the paddle).

Finally, add 170gr of molasses, 1 egg and 390gr of flour. Mix using the paddle attachment.

Be careful not to overmix... When you get a crumble-like texture as in the first photo below, finish mixing by hand. If you mix too much, your dough will puff up too much during baking and the cookies will come out misshapen.

Once the dough is formed, place it on a sheet of baking paper and cover it with cling film.

I noticed a while back that it's much easier to roll out dough if you put cling film on top rather than baking paper. Give it a try! You'll see what I mean! ;-)

Roll out your dough with a large rolling pin and cookie thickness guides. Use the 5 mm guides for these cookies. Be consistent when rolling out the dough, otherwise your cookies won't be even...

Once the dough is nicely rolled out, place it in the freezer for 15 minutes. It will be much easier to cut out this way, and with kids it's so much simpler!

To keep the dough flat, simply place a cutting board underneath.

After 15 minutes in the freezer, preheat your oven to 180°C, fan setting.

Then take out your dough and cut it out with your cookie cutters. Have fun!

Here, I chose two kits: the gingerbread house/man one and the reindeer/Santa Claus one.

Once your cookies are cut out, place them on a perforated baking tray lined with a perforated baking mat. Use a small offset spatula to move the cookies.

Bake the cookies for exactly 8 minutes!

Decoration

We could stop here... But that would be a shame! Let's decorate them a little anyway. :o)

To keep it easy, we'll use a royal icing mix. I love this mix! Really! I always used to make my royal icing from scratch (with meringue powder, citric acid and all that), but when I tried this mix, I was sold!

So it's really simple!

Pour 225gr of royal icing mix into your bowl and add 30gr of cold water.

Then mix with the whisk but at low speed! This is very very important!!! If you whisk too fast, you'll end up with a meringue that you won't be able to pipe... So go gentle with the whisk!

You'll get a fairly thick consistency (see the first photo below). That's normal! We've made a base. Depending on the food colouring and the humidity in your home, we'll add a little water at a time.

To add water in small amounts, I always use a dosing bottle. Super handy for royal icing.

If you're colouring your royal icing, add the colouring first, then the water.

The right texture is when you lift your spoon 10 cm above the bowl and the icing flows smoothly without being too runny! I know it's not easy to judge... If the icing drips in a jerky way, add water until it flows smoothly enough.

Once your icing is ready, take a small 30 cm piping bag, a small coupler and a 1 mm piping tip.

Place the large part of the coupler inside the piping bag. Cut the tip with scissors, then place the piping tip and screw the last piece over it.

Fill the bag with icing and you're ready to start decorating the cookies.

Have fun! Let your imagination run wild!

And most importantly... Enjoy! :o)

The cookies will keep for about 2 weeks in an airtight container.

Have a great Sunday, foodies!

Karin

P.S.: All the equipment used can be found at the bottom of the recipe.