Soft-Glazed Gingerbread Cookies from The View from Great Island

Soft-Glazed Gingerbread Cookies - made dough September 26, 2023 from The View from Great Island 

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup molasses (not blackstrap)

1 large egg yolk

1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon Dutch process cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Glaze

1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, meted

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon warm water

1. Place your cookie stamps in the freezer to chill while you mix the dough.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, brown sugar and molasses until combined. Beat in egg yolk until just combined.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, salt and pepper. Add to the butter mixture in two additions, mixing on low speed after each addition just until dough comes together. 
4. Scrape onto a large piece of parchment paper and squeeze together if necessary. IF dough is too warm or soft, briefly place in the refrigerator to chill until easier to handle.
5. Portion dough into balls and roll each ball in granulated sugar before pressing with cookie stamp. Cut out stamped cookies with a round cookie cutter to trim the edges. Cover and chill or freeze for 20 minutes or several hours. 
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space stamped cookies and bake for 8-10 minutes. Do not overbake. Let cookies rest on pan for 5 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
7. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the glaze ingredients until smooth and thin. Add more water if glaze is too thick. Brush the cooled cookies with the glaze. Let set before serving.

I'm back to my cookie stamping craze and trying out new recipes that can hold the impressions well. And given the Christmas baking season is coming up, I'm trying out some seasonal flavors now rather than later.

I'm not the world's biggest gingerbread fan. Nothing wrong with gingerbread; it just isn't my thing. Often I find it overly spiced or too hard/crisp to eat or both. 

But 'tis the season and all so I tried this recipe. As you can see from the ingredient list, yes, it has a bunch of spices. I'm used to baking with cinnamon and ginger, even nutmeg and ground cloves. Pepper is not something I typically put in my baked goods but that's what the recipe called for so I did it.

Ultimately I'm glad I did. I actually liked these cookies. They weren't too hard (don't overbake) and they tasted like how gingerbread is supposed to taste, with an added bite, presumably from the pepper. Plus, they held the impressions quite nicely. 

I ended up only glazing one cookie for the taste test and shipped off the rest. The glaze worked well with this cookie, adding a light sweetness to the cookie to cut some of the spice. I think I've found a good recipe for this season's Christmas baking.