- Prep Time15 min
- Total Time1 hour
We make these Danish Gingerbread Cookies many times every Christmas at our house. They fill the house with that amazing cinnamon smell that just shouts CHRISTMAS, no matter the weather outside or the temperature. It’s wonderful.
Danish Gingerbread Cookies
The Danish Gingerbread cookies are traditionally made into small bite-sized cookie balls. But they can also easily be rolled out and shaped with cookie cutters. They need to be rolled out slightly thinner than the butter cookies (about 2-3mm thickness) and can easily be decorated with icing too. See my tips and recipe for decorating cookies with kids here. We also use this dough for Gingerbread Houses.
Danish Gingerbread Cookies without ginger?
Psst, let me tell you a secret. I am not a big fan of dried ginger, so I simply don’t add it anymore. 😉 The gingerbread is so tasty though and I have not had a single person ask me why the ginger is missing. The cinnamon and clove powders give the Christmassy taste but they also have the kick of black pepper. In Denmark we call them “pebernødder” which directly translated means “pepper nuts”. You can add 1/2 tsp ginger powder to the recipe if you are a fan. I always use freshly ground black pepper. It just adds that little extra to the dough. See my little tip to doing this without any mess in the steps below.
Eggless Gingerbread Cookies?
Yes, it’s possible! The recipe below contains eggs, but you can make these without as well. Simply add 50ml apple puree instead of the egg. See how to make the apple puree here.
You can easily make this dough in advance and keep in the fridge for a few days or freeze for up to 3 months.
Yield: About 60-70 small cookies or 120 of the round bite-sized ones.
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius
Grind the black pepper on a paper towel or regular paper and measure as shown here
Whisk the butter and the sugar together. Add the egg or apple sauce and keep whisking.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and three spices together.
Mix the sugar/butter mixture into the dry ingredients. Mix well. If needed squeeze the ingredients together with your hand. The dough should stick together but it is quite dry like pie dough.
If you are using cookie cutters, leave the dough to rest in the fridge for min. 15 minutes. It's easier to roll if it's cold. If you are making the traditional ball shaped cookies, then you can go ahead right away.
Sprinkle a little flour on the table and roll a piece of the dough out using a rolling pin. TIP: The dough breaks quite easily so roll out smaller portions at a time
Bake the cookies in the middle of the oven for 10-12 minutes depending on your oven. The round ones will remain pale and will only get colour underneath. The shapes will get slightly darker around the edges.
Let the cookies cool down for about 30 minutes before packing them away. They should be cool and hard when you pack them to avoid condensation inside your container.
Store them in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 weeks. Happy Baking :-)
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