49 Gingerbread cookies with cinnamon buttercream

Christmas is coming, so are the cravings. When I think Christmas, I think cinnamon, ginger, cloves, oranges, and more cinnamon. I made gingerbread cookies (recipe soon) but they need time to soften, so I had to find something in between. This recipe is a perfect compromise between gingerbread and cinnamon, absolutely stunning cookies to put you instantly in a Christmas mood ^^

GINGERBREAD COOKIES WITH CINNAMON BUTTERCREAM

INGREDIENTS

for the gingerbread dough
300g wheat flour
160g butter
60g white sugar
60g dark brown sugar
2 tbsp honey
2 egg yolks
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves

for the cinnamon buttercream
150g butter, not very soft
225g icing sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp cornstarch
120ml milk

HOW TO MAKE?

gingerbread cookies first
1. Add the flour onto the pastry board. Add the butter and chop it with a big knife into the flour so you’ll get little chunks of butter completely covered in flour.
2. Add sugars, honey, spices and egg yolks and knead the dough with your hands. It should be fairly easy, if the dough seems too loose you can add a little bit more flour.
3. Once the dough is done, wrap it in the kitchen foil and put in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
4. After that time, take the dough out and divide it in two. Roll out the first half on a dusted surface, should be about 5mm thick. Cut out the cookies. You can use stars or hearts, whichever you like or have available.

5. You can pierce the edges of half of the cookies with a wooden toothpick, they will look really cute after baking. You will use them as the top layer of your cookies later.

6. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Bake the gingerbread cookies on the trays lined with baking parchment. Baking time: 10-13 minutes. If you keep them in the oven for too long, they will become way to hard and crunchy.
7. When done, take out of the oven and set aside on the wire rack to cool completely.

cinnamon buttercream time
1. Mix the cinnamon and cornstarch with cold milk. You can use a big mug, so it’ll be easy for you to get rid of the lumps (there will be lumps, load of them).
2. Add the mixture into a small saucepan and bring to a boil for about 3 minutes. You need to stir it constantly or even lift the saucepan to stir to avoid it sticking to the bottom of it. The mixture will thicken very quickly, you must be very careful not to burn it. Once thick, set aside to cool completely.
3. Beat the butter in a big bowl with your electric mixer. The butter should be soft and fluffy, almost white colour, before you add anything else to it. Once the butter is up to standards, add icing sugar and mix it into the butter. Be careful not to create an icing sugar cloud in your kitchen ^^
4. When butter and icing sugar are mixed well together, add the cinnamon custard and mix until incorporated and smooth.

assembling the cookies
1. Using a teaspoon, add some buttercream to a gingerbread cookie and cover it with another one (the one with wholes if you did pierce them). Press a little bit so the buttercream sticks both the cookies together.
2. Using a small knife, clean the edges of the cookies, getting rid of the excess cream.
3. When all the cookies are ready, sprinkle them with cinnamon.
4. The cookies taste the best the next day after baking. The cream will soften the gingerbread cookies nicely overnight.

Smacznego!

aho