Happy December!! This year my advent calendar is coming in cookie form! I made a batch of my favourite gingerbread cookies, spent most of sunday icing them and now they are ready for decorating our not-yet-up tree. They’re full of cozy holiday spices and just the right balance between crumbliness with a little bit of softness to them. Each day we’ll get to eat a cookie from the tree, counting down to the best day of the year in the most delicious way.
Gingerbread Advent Cookies
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
2 tbsp black treacle
1 egg yolk
Royal Icing
2 cups (240g) icing sugar, sifted
1 1/2 tbsps meringue powder
3–4 tbsps room temperature water
optional: food coloring and sprinkles!
Instructions
Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl. Cream the butter, sugar and molasses together until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolk. Mix in the dry ingredients until it forms a dough. If it is a little dry add a little water. Wrap with plastic wrap and chill in fridge for at minimum 30mins.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350F. Roll out the dough to ½ cm thick on a large sheet of baking paper. Cut the dough with cookie cutters and place on a baking sheet lined. If hanging on a tree use the top of a piping tip or straw to cut out a hole at the top of each cookie. Recombine the scraps, repeat and cut into more shapes. Put the cookie cutouts into the fridge for at least 30mins or the freezer for at least 10mins. Bake for 10mins until they are just about starting to turn brown. As soon as they are out of the oven recut the hole on each cookie as it closes up slightly when baking. Let cool completely before icing.
Icing
Mix all the icing ingredients together, adding more water or icing sugar if the icing is too dry or too runny. For piping lines you want the icing to be the consistency of a thick paste. If you are filling an area it should be slightly thinner. It is easier starting with less water and add a very little at a time to achieve the right consistency. Divide the icing and add food colouring for coloured icing. Fill a piping bag with a small round piping tip and decorate cookies as desired!
