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No cookie says Christmas more than the adorably decorated Gingerbread Men Cookies, would you agree? These beautifully spiced, soft and chewy cookies are so easy to make, extremely fun to decorate and makes a great festive gift for young and old.
The origin of gingerbread men dates back from the 1400s and figurine cookie making was popularised in the 1500s. Back then, the Queen of England had her kitchen made cookies out of gingerbread shape to represent some of her important guests. The idea of gingerbread men is also popularised in pop culture, as can be seen in fairy tales such as ‘The Gingerbread Man’, a gingerbread man which comes to life and went through various adventures. Also in ‘Shrek’, where Gingy was featured as a talking gingerbread. In ‘The Nutcracker, the key hero leads an army of gingerbread men against the mouse king and his followings.
A gingerbread cookie is a festive cookie made with flavours of ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground clove, and ground ginger, added with molasses. In this recipe, I substituted molasses with pure honey as I have abundant of them at home. I have also substituted brown sugar with Demerara unrefined cane sugar, to make it slightly healthier and free of refined sugar.
Gingerbread men cookies are typically decorated with royal icing. Some recipes might us chocolate chips, food gel colourings, colourful sugar sprinkles, and etc to decorate the cookies. In this recipe, I used some white chocolate compound, melted with a tablespoon of coconut milk to make more fluid to play with. You can of course substitute coconut milk with whipping cream.
If you are preparing a feast for Christmas, do check out my other Christmas recipes:
- Air Fried Lamb Rack Recipe
- Perfectly Juicy Turkey
- Shepherd’s Pie Recipe With Leftover Turkey
- Coconut Bundt Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache
- Yule Log (Bûche De Noël or Christmas Log Cake)
See all other Christmas recipes here.
Watch how to make Gingerbread Men Cookies on YouTube
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Gingerbread Men Cookies
Ingredients
- 125 g unsalted butter softened at room temperature
- 80 g Demerara unrefined cane sugar
- 100 ml pure honey can be substituted with molasses
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 350 g plain flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp fine salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- 100 g white chocolate compound
- 1 tbsp coconut milk can be substituted with whipping cream
Instructions
- Combine 125g unsalted butter, 80g Demerara unrefined cane sugar, and 100ml pure honey. Use an electric whisk or electric mixer or food mixer with paddle attachment to mix until ingredients are creamy and well-mixed.125 g unsalted butter, 80 g Demerara unrefined cane sugar, 100 ml pure honey
- Crack in 1 large egg and 2 tsp vanilla extract. Mix until well-incorporated.1 large egg, 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Sift in 350g plain flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp fine salt, and all the spices (1 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground clove, and 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg).350 g plain flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp fine salt, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tsp ground ginger, 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg, 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- Use a spatula to combine the dry ingredients into the butter mixture until well-mixed. The cookie dough should be soft and consistent.Note: You can also use the electric whisk or mixer or food mixer to mix in the dry ingredients.
- Wrap the cookie dough with cling wrap. Chill in the fridge for about 1 hour or until the cookie dough is firm.
- Preheat oven to 180C / 356F (convection oven) or 190C / 374F (conventional oven).
- Place chilled cookie dough in between 2 parchment paper. Roll out the cookie dough using a rolling pin, to about 5-8mm thickness.
- Use a gingerbread man cookie cutter to cut out shapes. Note: Unused / uncut dough can be chilled, rolled and cut again.
- Use a spatula to place cut cookies on a baking sheet, spaced about 2-inch apart.Note: You can line a baking sheet with parchment paper or use a non-stick baking sheet without parchment paper.
- Bake in pre-heat oven for 8-10 minutes at 180C / 356F (convection oven) or 190C / 374F (conventional oven). Note: I baked the cookies at 160C in a convection oven with fan for 8 minutes.
- Cool cookies completely on a cooling rack.
- Meanwhile, we prepare the white chocolate cream.Boil water in a sauce pan on high heat. Once boiled, reduce heat to simmering. Place 100g white chocolate compound in a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over the sauce pan, the base not touching the bowl.100 g white chocolate compound, 1 tbsp coconut milk
- Add 1 tbsp coconut milk and constantly stir the mixture with a spatula until the white chocolate fully melted and the mixture becomes smooth and consistent. Turn off the heat.
- Transfer the white chocolate cream into a small piping bag.
- Decorate the cookies.
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