Gingerbread Reindeer Cookies
Servings: 2 dozen
Begin a day ahead, or early in the day.
Print Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup light-brown sugar, packed
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup unsulphured molasses
Antonia74's Royal Icing
- 3/4 cup warm water
- 5 tablespoons meringue powder
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 2 1/4 pounds powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Garnishes
- gold or silver dragees
- various gel colors
Instructions
Make the Dough
- In a mixing bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, allspice, and cardamom.
- In a separate bowl, use a hand mixer to blend together the butter, brown sugar, eggs, and molasses. Blend for 1 minute on medium speed, then scrape down the bowl. Blend again on medium speed for an additional minute.
- Slowly add the flour to the wet ingredients. Blend on low speed until you have a thick paste. Once the batter becomes too thick to mix with the hand mixer, begin kneading the dough by hand until it comes together.
- Form the dough into a ball, then divide the ball into two equal pieces. Flatten them into discs. Wrap both in two layers of plastic wrap. Put the dough in the fridge to chill for at least 1 hour before rolling.
Cut the Dough
- After the gingerbread dough has chilled in the refrigerator, take one of the discs out and dust your work surface with enough all-purpose flour to prevent the dough from sticking. Roll the disc out until it's a quarter of an inch thick.
- Cut the dough with a gingerbread man cookie cutter, turning the cookie cutter to get as many cuts from the piece of dough.
- Transfer your gingerbread men to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper, making sure to leave a bit of space between each cookie.
- Place the pan of cut gingerbread into the fridge and allow them to chill for thirty minutes to an hour. Repeat with the second disc of dough. Gather the scraps from both discs of dough and reroll. Cut as many men as you can from the scraps, then discard the remaining dough.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. After the cookies have chilled, remove them from the refrigerator and bake them for 18 minutes.
- After baking, remove the cookies from the oven and, after cooling for a minute, carefully recut the cookies with the cookie cutter. Transfer the cookies on a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely. Once cool, brush off any excess trimmings with your fingers.
Make the Royal Icing
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, whisk together the water and the meringue powder until frothy.
- Add the cream of tartar, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract, then blend (with the paddle attachment) on low for 10 minutes. Scrape down the bowl occasionally.
- Once the icing has been made, be sure to always keep it covered with a damp cloth, or with plastic wrap directly on its surface.
How to Decorate
- Color 1/3 of the thick icing black and/or gold (for the reindeers' antlers). For outlining the cookies, thin another third of the royal icing until it leaves a ribbon that's visible on the surface for five seconds. You can color this or leave it white- this will be used to outline the body and later we'll thin it to fill in the body.I colored the main body of the reindeers (the thinner icing) brown for boys and white for girls. The bottom of their ears (inner-lid) will be filled in with an ivory color. The antlers will be a darker color- gold for the girls and black for the boys.
- Fill a piping bag fitted with a coupler and a number 1 piping tip with the thin (5-second ribbon) icing.
- Working with the gingerbread man upside down, begin at the bottom of the cookie and create an outline that resembles a butternut squash. For the ears, begin at the side of the face (where the gingerbread man's arms would be) and outline the area in a leaf shape. Divide the top part of the ear and the inner part with a thin line across the "leaf".
- Thin the main body icing to a "flooding consistency"- when you let the icing drizzle back into the bowl, it barely leaves a ribbon- it should be incorporated almost immediately into the icing.
- Use a larger tip (a number 3 or 4) to fill in the face and ears with the flooding icing. Use a toothpick to nudge the icing into the nooks and crannies, as well as to pop the miniscule bubbles that will form in the icing. Gently, and quickly, tap the cookie after you've iced them. It helps the icing settle into the cracks, but also encourages air bubbles to rise to the surface. If you see any air bubbles come up, pop them with your toothpick. Then tap some more to fill in the space where the bubbles were.
- Create antlers that have dimension by piping them with a 340 star tip. Swirls, swoops, or angles are great when creating your deer's antlers.
- Use gold and silver dragees to embellish the cookies- create ornaments for the antlers on the girl reindeers with them. For the guys, pipe ornaments with the thicker icing colored with burgundy red gel color mixed with a touch of super red, and forest green gel color.
- Sprinkle some black edible glitter on the guys' antlers while the icing is still wet. For the girls, thin some bronze luster dust with grain alcohol and cover their antlers in it. You can also use this to create their eyelashes and their smiles. Paint on the boys' smiles and eyes with a black edible marker.
Notes
- Decorated or undecorated, these cookies will stay edible for up to three days. Just be sure to keep them covered in an air-tight container.