Gingerbread Lollipops

I chose to make these gingerbread lollipops for a recent fundraising sale at church because they are what I call a simple showstopper — Attention getting, yet quick to make.

The sticks that I used are candy apple sticks which take the heat of the oven and have a semi-pointed end that's easy to insert into the cookie.

Really, the only real trick to making these is to cut your cookies extra thick to accept the stick and then it's just two color wet-on-wet decorating and some basic packaging.

Here's how I made them:

Cut gingerbread rounds thicker than the diameter of the sticks you want to use.  Insert a stick into each cookie, pressing gently until it's more than half-way through it. Check the back of the cookie and if you see thin areas, you can press in a bit of extra dough for support.

Place the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake.

To decorate, add a touch of royal icing at the base of the cookie for extra support and then outline and fill the cookie. Immediately pipe on a spiral of another color and that's all there is to it. Leave the cookies to dry completely at room temperature.

Once dry, the cookies are super sturdy and easy to pick up.

I wrapped the gingerbread lollipops for the fundraising sale by clipping the adhesive strip off of a self-sealing cellophane bag and sliding it over the cookie. Then, I tied on the bag with a piece of ribbon and that's all there is to it!

Gingerbread Hearts

These Gingerbread Hearts are the perfect cookie decorating project for those who want to make cookies but want to start with something simple.

They come together quickly and the bonus is that baking them will make your house smell amazing and is sure to get you in the holiday spirit.

I made them using my favorite Gingerbread cookie recipe. The resulting cookies are soft and very gingery.

Use a small heart cutter to make them and then decorate them by just outlining and filling the cookies using medium consistency royal icing and a #2 tip. When I outline and fill small areas, I always use a thicker icing so that it's easier to control on the cookie. Aim for the consistency of yogurt. It isn't runny but is soft enough to not leave peaks and settles into place.

After filling the cookies you may need to use a skewer to scribe tool to move the icing and fill in all of the spaces. Give the cookie a gently shake to help the icing settle and that's it. Let the cookies dry completely before serving or packaging. 

Here are the recipes:

Gingerbread Cookie Dough
 6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
4 teaspoons ground ginger
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon finely ground pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 large eggs
1 cup unsulfured molasses

Sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl. Set aside.

Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until fluffy. Mix in spices and salt, then eggs and molasses. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Divide dough into thirds; wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to a 1/4-inch thick. With cookie cutters, cut into desired shapes. Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.

Bake cookies until crisp but not dark, 10 to 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

Royal Icing
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons meringue powder
6 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Food coloring, optional

In a large bowl combine meringue powder, water and lemon juice and stir until meringue powder is dissolved. Add powdered sugar and with an electric mixer on low speed, beat until evenly moistened. Then beat on high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form. Divide and tint as desired and add water a few drops at a time to get desired consistency. 

Snowy Scene Gingerbread Cookies

A round cutter and three colors of royal icing are all you need to make these Snowy Scene Gingerbread Cookies.

A cool 3-D effect on the cookie is created by adding the tree and a few additional snowflakes after the basecoat has dried. These are fun to make and there are so many design options depending on what colors you choose. Using black icing for the background would give you a night scene and you could even add a few gold dots for stars to the sky. A snowman would also be a cute and easy to pipe free-hand.

Here's how I decorated them and my favorite Gingerbread Cookie recipe:

Outline and flood the cookies with blue royal icing and immediately add different sized dots of white using medium consistency icing and a #1 tip. Let the cookies dry completely before moving onto the next step.

Using medium consistency green royal icing, outline and fill a tree in the center of the cookie.

Immediately add a few dots of medium consistency white icing on the tree and outline and fill a snowy bank under the tree.

The final step is to add a brown trunk with medium consistency royal icing and a #1 tip.

Let the cookies dry completely before serving or packaging.

Gingerbread Cookie Dough
6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
4 teaspoons ground ginger
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon finely ground pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 large eggs
1 cup unsulfured molasses

Sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl. Set aside.

Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until fluffy. Mix in spices and salt, then eggs and molasses. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Divide dough into thirds; wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to a 1/4-inch thick. With cookie cutters, cut into desired shapes. Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.

Bake cookies until crisp but not dark, 10 to 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

Decorated Gingerbread Tip

No one will ever know that the gingerbread under the icing of these snowflakes might of had a few cracks.

Gingerbread is one sturdy dough that can form cracks as you roll it out. I've found that I can manage to get one side of the dough fairly smooth but it really is tough to get both looking good.

My tip is to just focus on getting one side smooth and make sure that is on the bottom when you cut out your cookies. That's right, leave the blemishes front and center on top of the dough because they will be covered when you decorate the cookies. The bottom is the only part of the gingerbread that is left exposed.

Letting go of perfect looking dough top and bottom also keeps me from fussing and over-rolling which can lead to tough gingerbread.

Believe me, the icing will hide everything.

A cookie ready to be baked. A few cracks in gingerbread are really hard to avoid and over working the dough isn't good either.

I cut the dough so that the smoothest side of it is on the back of the cookie.

Please don't stress, those cracks will soon disappear.

Perfect!

Even better!