Hi, Everyone! Today I want to share one of my favorite Christmas traditions with you – traditional Czech gingerbread cookies! I look forward to baking these cookies every year, because it brings back sweet memories of making them with my mom and my grandparents every year, and because it fills the house with the most wonderful, warm, gingerbread aroma! Once these cookies are baked, decorated and sitting on the dining table, the Christmas season can officially begin! Personally, I only use these cookies for decoration but you could definitely eat them. Here are some pictures of my Christmas 2012 gingerbread cookies!
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TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS
GINGERBREAD COOKIES
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YOU WILL NEED
Cookies:
325g all-purpose flour
125g powdered sugar
50g honey
2 tbs unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 tbs ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp anise
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Icing:
2 egg whites
2 cups powdered sugar
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DIRECTIONS
DIRECTIONS
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1. In your electric mixer bowl, combine flour, baking soda and cinnamon. In another bowl, cream together butter, eggs, sugar, honey and anise.
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2. While mixing, slowly add the wet mixture to the dry until a firm dough forms. I like this dough because it’s not greasy at all. Form it into a disk and wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate it for 30 minutes.
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3. Once chilled, divide the dough into two, and roll each half our on a floured surface (into about a sugar cookie dough thickness, the cookies will puff up quite a bit while baking!) and cut your shapes out. Preheat your oven to 350 deg F (180 deg C)
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4. Place your cut out shapes onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and bake for about 7 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool completely before icing.
5. To make your icing, whisk 2 egg whites until stiff white peaks form, then slowly begin adding the sugar. Spoon that mixture into your piping bags, and decorate your cookies! This icing is great as it dries hard, just make sure you give it enough time to dry!
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I hope you have lots of wonderful Christmas traditions that you look forward to every year too!
Happy Baking, Everyone!
Maria, these are absolutely beautiful! Each one is a work of art!
Oohhh thank you so much, Anita! I love decorating cookies, it’s one of my favorite things to do at Christmas time!
Wow! They are beautiful! I have to pin!
Thanks, Cristina!
Hi Maria- thanks for much for the sweet comment you left on my blog. These look absolutely gorgeous. And I had no idea gingerbread was a Czech tradition. I guess it is true when they say you learn something new every day 🙂
Thanks so much, Sarah!
Hi Maria, These look so beautiful! I am from Austria living in England and I also have lots of holiday traditions that I look forward to – including Gingerbread! I hope you have a peacful and happy Christmas…
Thanks so much, Elisa! I hope you have a wonderful Christmas too, and enjoy all your traditions too! Thanks for stopping by!
Those are the most beautiful gingerbread cookies I have ever seen!!! Great job!
Thanks so much!
Maria-WOW!! These look amazing! I love how you have decorated them each so beautifully, they all look soooooooooooooooo stunning! Thanks so much for sharing them:)
Thank you so much! Hope you are enjoying the coming holiday season!
These don’t even look real.. they are so beautiful, I’d hate to eat one!!
Thank you!
Wow, your cookies are so beautiful!!
Thank you, Liz!
Works of art!
Aww thank you so much, Carlene!
I love beautiful cookies!!! If you get a chance, I’d love for you to stop by The Tuesday To Do Party and link up!
http://blackberryvine.blogspot.com/2012/11/tuesday-to-do-89-and-88-list-makers.html.
If you leave a comment, you’ll be entered for the Christmas T-shirt Giveaway! Good luck!
Smiles!
Jami
http://www.blackberryvine.blogspot.com
These look so amazing! And all the other food posts! I am pinning! My husband LOVES gingerbread cookies and I never make them… I am your newest follower!