Recipe – Triple Gingerbread Cookies

Happy (almost) holidays, everyone! The holidays will look very different for us this year. New house, new decorations, and new traditions. While we won’t be visiting family, we are excited to begin our own traditions. One of them will be eating some triple gingerbread cookies and perhaps building some houses out of them (if they can survive that long)!

These gingerbread cookies are REALLY gingery. I substituted a third of the flour with ground triple gingersnaps from Trader Joe’s. Then I increased the amount of ground ginger. Lastly, I added candied ginger. All of these really helps put the “ginger” in “gingerbread”!

The Dry Ingredients

First, pulverize the gingersnaps.

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Then, add the rest of the dry ingredients with the ground gingersnaps to a bowl. For the candied ginger, I just did a rough chop.

The Dough

Add the dry ingredient mixture and the wet ingredients to a stand mixer and mix on low until just combined. Be sure not to overmix! We want the structure to be “short”, meaning that the gluten strands are short. That’s where the “short” in “shortbread” comes from! If the gluten strands were longer, they would be pliable, like bread. Not good for a cookie.

Afterwards, refrigerate the dough for 10min. This will make the dough easier to roll. Divide the dough into 4. On a floured surface, take one piece at a time, smash it with the palm of your hand, flour the top, then roll to 3mm thickness. I love using this adjustable rolling pin! If the dough sticks to the pin, just flour it some more. This recipe is pretty forgiving when needing to add additional flour.

Then, cut out whatever shapes you want! I used gingerbread people, houses, snowflakes, trees…anything that I’ve gathered for my baking over the years.

Tip: to make the transferring onto a silicon baking mat easier, use an angled icing spatula to lift the cut-out dough.

Lastly, bake at 350°F for 8min, then cool on a rack!

Triple Gingerbread Cookies

Materials:

• 150g all purpose flour
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 lemon/lime zest
• 10g flaked coconut + more for decoration
• 50g blueberries
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 30g Dutch-processed cocoa
• 50g 100% cacao chocolate chips
• 100g maple syrup
• 100g light sour cream
• 100g extra virgin olive oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Materials (frosting):

• Option 1: TJ’s chocolate hummus + buttercream frosting (1:1)
• Option 2: TJ’s chocolate hummus + plant-based milk to thin

Methods:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine coconut oil, maple syrup, molasses, and the egg and mix.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, ground gingersnap, baking soda, salt, ground ginger/cinnamon/cloves, allspice, and candied ginger).
3. Add dry ingredient mixture to the mixing bowl, mix until combined, then refrigerate for 10min.
4. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
5. Lightly flour your working area, divide the dough into 4, and roll each to 3mm
   • NOTE: flour the top to prevent it from sticking to your rolling pin!
6. Cut any shapes you want, and place on a silicon mat on a baking sheet
   • NOTE: I use an angled icing spatula to help transfer them to the mat.
7. Bake 8min and cool on a rack.

A Brief History of Gingerbread Cookies

While ginger originated in Asia, the first appearance of gingerbread recipes is not completely agreed upon. Some say that the first recipe originated in Greece around 2400 BCE. Others believe that crusaders returning from the Mediterranean in the 11th century may have introduced gingerbread to Western Europe. In medieval Europe, gingerbread made frequent appearances at festivals, often shaped as flowers, animals, or even armor. In France and England, there gingerbread fairs date back centuries!

Gingerbread was thought to be medicinal for stomachaches and even the plague. Also, ladies often gave knights a piece of gingerbread for good luck during tournaments. Gingerbread even made it into Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost play in 1598 (“An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy ginger-bread“). In Germany, gingerbread often had messages written in sugar. The gingerbread house originated in 16th century Germany and was popularized by the Grimm fairy tale Hansel and Gretel.

In North America, people used gingerbread to try swaying voters for a particular candidate. George Washington’s mother, Mary Ball Washington, had her own recipe that was passed down for generations. It was a softer texture than the gingerbread cookies that are popular today, which have that characteristic “snap”.

Gingerbread house records continue to be broken. The current winner is a 40,000 cubic foot structure built at Traditions Golf Club in Texas. They actually needed a construction permit and was made from over 4,000 gingerbread bricks!

References

“The History of Gingerbread”. Public Broadcasting Service: Tori Avey. Accessed December 13th, 2020.
“The History of Gingerbread”. The Spruce Eats: Barbara Rolek. Accessed December 13th, 2020.
“A Brief History of Gingerbread”. Smithsonian Magazine: Amanda Fiegl. Accessed December 13st, 2020.