A Gingerbread Christmas Without Molasses

Why is gingerbread associated with Christmas?

Please consider me old-fashioned, but I guess painting a gingerbread Christmas is purely a holiday baking. Gingerbread is painted all year round and looks great in any shape and color scheme. But still, eating them is most pleasant under the flavors of mandarin and Christmas tree, which is slight anticipation of Christmas.

And the set of favorite spices, traditionally added to the gingerbread dough, is more suitable for a gingerbread Christmas. Occasionally, when you look at such a gingerbread, it appears that some Christmas magic warmth emanates from it.

Therefore, I decided to remind you of these gingerbread cookies without molasses on the eve of Christmas and New Year. The recipe is already many years old, and I got it from my grandmother. There is no protein or honey in a gingerbread Christmas, which is suitable even for allergic people.

Let’s create magic with our hands

The shelf life of gingerbread cookies without molasses is long. I advise you to eat most of it fresh, while the memories of the pleasant aroma in the kitchen and the detailed, satisfying work of painting are still new. By the way, at the end of the article, I will give you step-by-step instructions on how to draw on a gingerbread Christmas. Everything is possible with such education!

The recipe has all the tricks and details on making real works of art in your home. Hurry to read the recipe and call the children to help you. And when the soft gingerbread cookies with icing cookies are ready, put them neatly in a beautiful box and certainly treat your family and friends. Let this Christmas and New Year become a little more magical for them!

Gingerbread dough

Ingredients: 

• Sugar — 200 g
• Water — 175 g
• Butter 82.5% — 90 g
• *Spices — 2.5 g
• Salt — 2.5 g
• Baking Soda — 2.5 g
• Yolk — 10 g
• Flour — 340 g

*More detailed in the section “Note to the hostess.”

Cooking steps, a gingerbread Christmas

Making dry caramel

• Pour sugar (200 g) into a reasonably large saucepan (at least 3 liters). Place on the stove (slightly above medium heat) and cook dry caramel. It would help if you got a nice, smooth and transparent caramel.

• Cautiously pour boiling water 175 g into it. Ideally, you have caramel heating on one burner, water boiling in a saucepan on the other. Pour in several servings and stir well, preferably with a wooden spatula. You get a pretty liquid caramel mass. Note that it is transparent again. We dislike the appearance of bubbles (excessive boiling of caramel). *More detailed in the section “Note to the hostess.”

• Add small cubes of butter, 90 g. Its temperature is not necessary here; it will melt anyway. Do all this on the stove, constantly stirring with a spatula.

• Next, add soda 2.5 g, salt 2.5 g, and favorite spices 2.5 g. I will write about the composition of the spices below. The mass will begin to foam incredibly, which is why we needed a large saucepan. Otherwise, everything will run away from you over the edge. Continue stirring with a spatula.

• Continue stirring with a spatula. Look photo; there is even a reaction on the spatula; the bottom of the pan is spotless; this is because we cooked the caramel correctly, nothing burnt and sugar not crystallized.

Dough preparation, a gingerbread Christmas

• Pour the mixture into a mixer bowl. Add 80 g of flour. Use the paddle attachment to knead the dough at medium speed. Next, add the yolk (10 g, usually half a chicken yolk). The mass will be smooth, shiny, and very fragrant. Add the rest of the flour. A gingerbread Christmas dough will become denser.

• Wrap the dough of a gingerbread Christmas in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours. Scrape it off the sides of the bowl with a scraper. As it cools, it will look like a gingerbread texture, while it will not stick to your hands.

• Put the refrigerated gingerbread cookie dough on a work surface. It will not stick to your hands at all and can be rolled out without parchment or flour. You can use a rolling pin with an adjustable thickness. If there is no rolling pin for convenience, use 4 mm thick guides. Then the gingerbread dough will be precisely the height you need. The rolling pin will follow the planks, and the dough will roll out correctly.

Shop Related Products

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. By clicking on the link, you do not pay extra for anything.

• Cut out the blanks with any cookie cutter and lay them out on a silicone mat or good parchment. Optionally, you can pierce the gingerbread cookies with a skewer. But, it is best to bake on a perforated rug. *More detailed in the section “Note to the hostess.”

• We bake a gingerbread Christmas in an oven preheated to 338 °F (170 °C), top-bottom mode. It is approximately 9-12 minutes. It is important not to over-dry the gingerbread cookies, so we take them out when they are still a little soft. They will swell well.

• When removing the gingerbread cookies from the oven, let them cool slightly (about 1 minute) and turn them over using a flat spatula. We turn them over so that the surface becomes a little smoother. After another 5 minutes, cover a gingerbread Christmas in a kitchen towel or put it in a container to keep it soft and moist.

Suppose you don’t like the bottom with bubbles. Bake the gingerbread cookies on a perforated rug. Then the bottom will look perfect. (Compare)

Gingerbread cookie decorating ideas

Take a simple gingerbread icing, dilute it as directed on the package, and add the gel coloring. Gingerbread icing and gel coloring.

How to make Royal Icing?

How to Make Royal Icing

Decorate the finished products with icing and make the rough markings with a food felt-tip pen. I added a small instruction step by step:

Inside, the gingerbread is tender, porous, and very fragrant. And the color of the dough is something incredible!

Take a beautiful box with a transparent lid and put your culinary masterpiece in; your present for Christmas is ready.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. By clicking on the link, you do not pay extra for anything.

Note to the hostess

Favorite spices

The recipe contains only 2.5 grams of spices. But to get the right and good taste of a gingerbread Christmas, you will need to cook them a little more so that the composition and proportions are the same every time. Indeed, the greater the total mass, the less the probability of an error. So, one of the favorite spices sets looks like this:

• Cinnamon 1,5 tsp
• Nutmeg 1 tsp
• Ground ginger 1 tsp
• Cardamom 0,5 tsp
• Ground cloves 0,5 tsp
• White pepper 0,5 tsp

Collect such a mixture, mix well, and add the same grams indicated in the recipe to the dough. The rest can be used for pumpkin recipes, spicy baked goods, or mulled wine.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. By clicking on the link, you do not pay extra for anything.

Many, predictably, are too lazy to collect this set of spices, but eventually, a gingerbread Christmas will not turn out to be as magical, aromatic, and unique in taste. The collection of spices added to the dough is one of the secrets of genuinely delicious gingerbread.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. By clicking on the link, you do not pay extra for anything.

Accuracy is important: Use an accurate (molecular) balance. Why? We have very little soda (2.5 g), but if the scales give an error, the texture quality of the gingerbread can be permanently spoiled. If there is more soda, it may feel its taste too strongly in the finished product, and if there is not enough, the texture of a gingerbread Christmas will be fundamentally wrong.

Basic rules for beginners

Nothing is challenging to prepare dry caramel for a gingerbread Christmas. The main thing is to observe several valuable rules. Start with the power of the fire. Let’s say you have ten divisions on the slab. For beginners, I advise you to start with 3-4, but only when the caramel is ready (before the introduction of boiling water) can you increase it to 6-7. For those who have already cooked caramel, you can use a power of 6-7. You need to understand that the lower the temperature, the less likely it will ruin everything because the processes are slower. There is always an opportunity to catch the right moment. Try to do not to stir sugar or use a wooden spatula.

Dry caramel — color

Use a saucepan with a thick bottom, and the hotplate should be slightly smaller than the diameter of the pan. All this will help cook the caramel correctly, without crystallization (sugaring). Remember that boiling caramel is dangerous; it can lead to crystallization. We need a clear amber syrup for a gingerbread Christmas. When you see tiny bubbles appear at the bottom (the syrup becomes opaque), remove the pan from the stove for 20-40 seconds; as soon as the syrup calms down a little and becomes more transparent, continue to cook the caramel on the stove. Wait for an amber color (or a little darker, similar to Coca-Cola, if you like the taste of burnt caramel).

What problems can there be with caramel?

If the sugar has melted and all the syrup has acquired an amber color, you still have lumps of sugar; most likely, crystallization has begun. In this case, it’s best to start over.

When you add boiling water to the caramel, lumps of sugar crystal may appear, do not be alarmed; beat the mass is a little over high heat. They will melt under the impact of the whole hot group — it can happen if the water is not hot enough, or you hesitated and badly stirred the mass during the introduction of this boiling water.

Storing gingerbread

Should store a gingerbread Christmas in an airtight container or bag. Place the gingerbread cookies in a container and add any orange peels to help the gingerbread cookies become soft and juicy again. If it turns out that they are still a little dry (overdo in the oven, put in a container late, or forgot to do it altogether), orange peels will help you.

There is a lot of sugar in the dough, and there are almost no ingredients that could go bad. Therefore, the gingerbread dough can lie in the refrigerator for a very long time (but before rolling out such a dough, let it heat for 10-15 minutes, otherwise it will crumble).

Shop Related Products

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. By clicking on the link, you do not pay extra for anything.

Merry Christmas!