No Chill Gingerbread Cookies: Do you lack the time to refrigerate cookie dough? Try these easy-to-make, roll-and-cut gingerbread cookies after just combining the ingredients! Cut into any shape you like, then serve them unadorned or embellished!
No Chill Gingerbread Cookies
INGREDIENTS
- ¾ cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup unsulfured molasses
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
INSTRUCTIONS
- Set the oven temperature to 375F. Place parchment paper on two or three metal baking pans and set them aside.
- Cream the butter and brown sugar in a big bowl until they are creamy. Mix in the egg until well mixed. Stir in the molasses and vanilla extract.
- Mix the flour, spices, and salt in a separate basin.
- Mix on low and add dry ingredients to wet in two to three increments. As soon as the dough comes together, stop mixing.
- Scrape the dough onto a surface that has been well-floured. Roll the dough to a thickness of ¼ inch using a rolling pin dusted with flour. Shape the dough into the desired shapes, gathering and rerolling scraps as needed. Leaving 2 inches between each form, place the shapes onto the baking sheets that have been prepared.
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Cook for 8–9 minutes, or until done. After 5 minutes of chilling on the baking sheet, move to a cooling rack to complete the cooling process. Serve plain or dress to your taste.
ALSO SEE
NOTES
- To cut neat forms that don’t spread in the oven, it’s important to get the right dough consistency. The key to all of this is using precise measurements for the flour. Should the dough become sticky upon mixing, do not hesitate to incorporate additional flour, a few teaspoons at a time, until the mixture becomes manageable and hardly clings to your fingers.
- Keep your rolling pin and work surface well-floured at all times. Before gathering leftovers to roll and cut more shapes, add extra flour to the mix.
FAQs AND QUESTIONs
HOW TO MAKE GINGERBREAD COOKIES
- This recipe follows the traditional process of creaming butter and sugar, followed by the addition of eggs and flavorings (vanilla and molasses), and finally adding the dry ingredients — flour, salt, and all those wonderful toasty spices.
- As with most baking recipes, during the final step of adding the dry ingredients, run your mixer on low. The goal is to integrate the dough well without overworking it; stop the mixer as soon as the flour streaks vanish. You can scrape this dough out onto a lightly floured surface and start rolling right away because it doesn’t need to rest in the fridge!
WHAT FLAVORS ARE IN GINGERBREAD?
- Answers to this question vary, but generally speaking, gingerbread incorporates some form of warm winter or festive spice, such as cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, or ginger. Additionally, I like to add a tiny dash of black pepper to accentuate the spiceiness of the other ingredients. One may find cardamom or coriander in certain spice combinations.
- Some people believe that the flavor that distinguishes an authentic gingerbread is molasses. Gingerbread’s distinctive flavor comes from the sharp, sweet, and slightly smokey flavor of it, which balances off the brown sugar, which is used more frequently than white sugar.
