Ingredients
- 6 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
- 6 tablespoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice
- 1 tablespoon ginger
- Pinch of salt
- 5 tablespoons butter
- 3/4 cup honey
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- Juice of 2 lemons
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Zest of 1 orange
- 2 eggs
Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Sift the flour, baking powder, spices and salt together in a large bowl, and set aside.
In a small saucepan combine the butter, honey, sugar, lemon juice and the lemon and orange zest. Bring this to medium heat and cook until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Let cool to about room temperature and beat in the eggs.
Make a well in the flour/spice mixture and add the egg/sugar mixture to the well. Using a fork, begin to gradually incorporate the flour into the egg mixture. When the flour has mostly been incorporated, turn the mixture out onto a clean work surface and gently knead until the mixture is smooth and homogenous. Knead in a little more flour if the dough seems sticky. Chill dough for 1 hour or overnight.
Using a rolling pin, roll the dough to an even thickness of about 1/4-inch. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place on a lightly greased or parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the cookies are firm and lightly browned. Let the cookies cool for 3 to 4 minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.
When the cookies are completely cool decorate, as desired.
Cook's Note: If you are planning to hang the cookies, make a hole for the string before baking.
1 Video | Photo: Gingerbread Cookies Recipe

















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By shalini72
on December 11, 2012
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Tried this for the bake sale, had to throw away the whole batch, the cookies were so hard, that I was afraid the kids would chip their tooth.
What a waste of my time and resources.
By ihave5
Bakersfield, CA
on December 24, 2011
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These are so yummy!! I don't know why so many people are complaining about it being too dry, but I can guess that maybe they do not have enough lemon juice. I have a lemon tree and get a large amount of juice from my lemons, but would never get that much from a lemon in the grocery store. I suggest doubling the amount of lemons you are using if they are the small thick rind kind from the store that don't have much juice. Perhaps that is the only downfall to this recipe, is it should give you a volume for the lemon juice, since it can vary so much from one lemon to another. Anyway, these are really tasty, my dough was really sticky and I had to add more flour, and it takes about 15 minutes to bake, and if I wanted them harder I think they would probably be fine with 20 minutes. I officially abandon sugar cookies and these are my new Christmas cookie!! I would agree they are not really gingerbread, though, since they do not have any molasses in them.
By maemaebb
on December 15, 2011
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These cookies were delightful. I would call them Ginger Spice rather than Gingerbread, because they just didn't have a true gingerbread taste or consistency to them.
Like other reviewers have mentioned, 8 minutes in the oven is just right. The cookies will come out chewy.
I used fresh ginger and shredded it. I also added a little water to the dough because it was quite dry.
Overall, a great cookie recipe!
Read all 24 reviews