An easy and fun to bake cookies that are a big hit with kids. I used a basic Shortbread ratio to make the dough and flavored it with ginger and cinnamon.
Basic Short bread has a ratio of 1, 2 and 3. That is one part of sugar for two parts of butter and three parts of flour.
So in other words, we need 50 grams of sugar with 100 grams of butter and 150 grams of flour.
We will keep the dry and wet ingredients separate. So start with two clean and dry bowls. Put the wet ingredients i.e. sugar and softened butter in one bowl. Put the flour in the other.
The flavors are going to come from powdered ginger and cinnamon. Since we want to make ginger the more prominent flavor, add in 2 teaspoons of ginger with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. If you have other powders like mace and nutmeg add a little bit of that as well. Salt helps elevate the sweetness of a dish. So add a pinch of that. Baking powder helps with getting some air into the dough. So a teaspoon of that.
To Summarize:
- Sugar : 50 grams.
- Butter : 100 grams.
- Flour : 150 grams.
- Salt a pinch.
- Ginger powder : 2 teaspoons.
- Cinnamon powder : 1 teaspoon.
- Baking powder : 1 teaspoon.
Whisk together the dry ingredients so everything is well distributed.
Cream together the butter and sugar. Add in the dry ingredients and mix till no dry spots remain. Knead it a little till its tightly packed. Keep in a airtight pack and chill it for at least 30 mins.
Roll into 50mm thick layer. Cut into your preferred shapes. Bake in a parchment lined baking tray at 180C for 10 minutes.
When moving from the cutting board to the baking tray, use a thin spatula. Dip the spatula in flour between each move. This will lubricate it and avoid breaking the cookies.
They are the most vulnerable when they come out of the hot oven. So let them cool especially the bigger pieces before you touch them. For this reason I bake the larger Gingerbread men in the last batch.
Enjoy.
Uncomplicated Cooking 