When I decorated the first batch of cut-out cookies for the blog, with the help of my dear friend Julia, we came up with so many ideas that we decided there had to be a second round of these.
The first time the cookies were white and we decorated them mainly with chocolate plus some colourful toppings.
This time I made a gingerbread dough for darker cookies, and we wanted to experiment with white and coloured icings.
We used a base of confectioner's sugar and lemon juice, and added beet juice and matcha powder for pink and green hues. They worked a charm and the icing even tasted of beets/green tea (in a good way!).
We only had a pastry brush and some makeshift piping bags (freezer bags with a cut-off tip) to decorate them, you could of course go a more professional way for more precise results.
And you could mix different shades of the same colour varying the proportions of the sugar/colouring.
The gingerbread dough has molasses and cocoa in it for a dark colour and flavour, and is nicely spiced. If you roll it out very thin you'll get crispier cookies, the thicker ones remain a bit chewy. I like both versions.
I think that's it. Now start playing!
Recipe (dough adapted from this one. yield depends on the size of your cookies)
405 grams flour (I used 150 grams wholewheat and the rest all-purpose)
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp cocoa
2 tsp ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp orange zest
1/2 tsp salt
195 grams soft butter
45 grams dark brown sugar (I used panela)
1 egg
140 grams molasses
for decoration:
confectioner's sugar
juice of 1 lemon
matcha powder
juice of a piece of grated beet
sprinkles, slivered almonds, chia seeds...(optional)
Mix the butter and sugar in a stand mixer until very light and fluffy. Add the egg and then the molasses and mix until combined.
Combine the flour, baking soda, cocoa, spices and salt. Add the mixture to the wet ingredients bit by bit, mixing in between, until the dough comes together.
Divide the dough in two equal pieces, shape them into disks and leave to rest in the freezer for at least an hour.
Preheat your oven to 160º C fan. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Take your dough out of the fridge (one disk at a time) and roll it out on a floured surface. Quickly cut out your cookies, place them on the baking sheets and bake for about 10 minutes, rotating the sheets once. The cookies should barely change their colour.
Let cool on a rack and decorate as desired.
For the icing, mix confectioner's sugar with drops of lemon juice until you reach the desired texture. For the green icing, just add some matcha powder to this mix. For the pink one, use beet juice instead of the lemon juice.
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