Gingerbread Cookies with Lemon Glaze

A glazed, sugared Christmas cookie on marble beside glass ornaments.

5 from 3 votes

These easy, beautiful gingerbread cookies have an enchanting lemon glaze with ginger sugar that’s so easy to make, and really gives them an icy, Christmas magic! This recipe also include 20 minutes cooling time.

Prep Time30

Cook Time10

Resting Time3

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: International

Diet: Kosher

Servings: cookies

Calories: 127kcal

Author: Genevieve Morrison

Equipment

2 large mixing bowls
1 food processor
1 spatula
1 hand mixer - or standing mixer
1 whisk
1 mixing spoon
2 ziplock bags - or cellophane
1 rolling pin
1 cookie cutter - 2 to 4-inch snowflake
1 baking sheet - with parchment or silpat
1 pastry brush

Ingredients

For the Cookies

10 tbsp. unsalted butter - softened
¾ cup dark brown sugar
⅔ cup unsulphured molasses
1 large egg
1 tsp. real vanilla extract - I used Beyond Good Madagascar Vanilla Extract
3½ cups all purpose flour - and a bit more for your surface
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 tbsp. ground ginger
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon - ideally Saigon cinnamon
½ tsp. ground allspice
½ tsp. ground nutmeg

For the Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
10 ginger candies - I used Pure Ginger Hard Candies

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl. Combine 10 tbsp. soft butter, ¾ cup dark brown sugar and ⅔ cup molasses. Use a hand mixer to combine well until smooth. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides when necessary. Add 1 egg and 1 tsp. vanilla extract. Continue to mix until smooth.
In a separate bowl, combine 3½ cups all purpose flour, 1 tsp. baking soda, ½ tsp. salt, 1 tbsp. ground ginger, 1 tbsp. ground cinnamon, ½ tsp. ground allspice and ½ tsp. ground nutmeg. Gradually add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stirring with a mixing spoon. The dough will begin to become sticky, hard and a little crumbly. I usually end up using my hands to completely combine the last bit of dry ingredients.
Separate dough into 2 parts, and either wrap each in cellophane or place them in ziplock bags. Flatten them out a bit - this will allow the dough to cool and harden faster. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Don’t skip the cooling step.
Preheat oven to 350 F. (177 C.). Remove dough bags one at a time - it warms very quickly, so you want to keep the other refrigerated while you roll and cut the other. On a floured surface, roll the dough to ¼-inch thick. As you roll, the dough may crack a little. Use the warmth of your fingers to smooth out cracks before cutting if the rolling pin didn’t quite roll smoothly. Use your cookie cutter to cut shapes. I used a 2 inch wide snowflake. I find it’s helpful to use a spatula to shimmy underneath the dough to lift the shape cleanly, even when the surface is well floured.
On Silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet, lay cookie shapes (you may have to bake in batches). Bake for 10 minutes. Once done, remove and cool for 5 - 10 minutes.
Once cookies are no longer warm, stir 1 cup powdered sugar (I know it seems like a lot, but it will really melt in the lemon juice) and 2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice, until a glaze forms. Glaze cookies with a pastry brush. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.
Place 6-10 ginger candies in a food processor and process on a “chop” setting for about 3 seconds to create ginger sugar. If you don’t have a food processor, you can also place candies in a bag and use your rolling pin to grind them into sugar. Sprinkle ginger sugar evenly on cookies. Place cookies in a container with a lid.

Notes

The cookies may not appear “done” after 10 minutes of baking, because they’ll seem quite soft right when you take them out, but they will firm up nicely to a semi-soft texture once cooled. However, if you touch one gently, and you really make a fingerprint in them, then they may need a little more time in the oven after all. If this happens, give them an extra 2-4 minutes more.

If you’re using larger cookie cutters than I used (a 2-inch snowflake) then your bake time may increase. If you’re using a 4-6 inch cookie cutter, give the cookies an extra 2-4 minutes to bake.

These cookies will stay perfect for 5 days if covered.

See post for detailed instructions with photos of the process.

Nutrition information is an estimate.

Nutrition