High on spice yet relatively delicate in texture, this dough is perfect for 2-D cookies and small-scale 3-D construction projects, like my sandwiched baskets and Fabergé egg cookies shown in the gallery below (photos 1 and 2). It also spreads less than my Signature Sugar Cookie Dough (recipe in my books), making it more suitable for tight-fitting angular constructions, such as boxes, cornets, blocks . . . basically any cookie creation with corners! And how does it do with contouring or shaping?! Yep, it’s great for that too – minimal, if any, cracking, even when flexed into highly curvy shapes as shown below.
About 3 pounds 4 ounces (1.4 kg) dough or 6 1/2 to 7 dozen (2 1/2-in/6.4-cm) round cookies
1 | Stir (or gently whisk) the flour, spices, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside for use in Step 4.
2 | Using an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the shortening and sugar until well combined. Add the egg and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute or less. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, as needed, to ensure even mixing. Note: Do not overbeat at this stage, as you will only incorporate more air into the mixture, which can lead to doming or cresting of the dough when it bakes. If you plan to ice your cookies, keeping the cookies as flat as possible is best.
3 | Turn the mixer to medium speed and add the molasses and vinegar. Mix well. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, as needed.
4 | Turn the mixer to low speed and gradually add the dry ingredients. Mix just to combine; however, make sure there are no dry spots.
5 | Flatten the dough into a disk (or two to three disks for easier handling). Wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate about 3 hours to allow the spice flavors to develop and meld. Again, the dough will not get much firmer once chilled, as it is shortening-based. (For freezing, wrap the dough again with foil and/or contain it in a resealable plastic bag as described in “Prep Talk”.)
6 | Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 375°F (191°C). Line two or more cookie sheets with parchment paper (or silicone baking mats) and set aside.
7 | Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to a 1/8- to 3/16-inch (3- to 5-mm) thickness. Again, it’s best to roll to a 1/8-inch (3-mm) thickness if making 3-D contoured shapes. Cut out assorted shapes with your favorite cookie cutters. Carefully transfer the cookies to the prepared cookie sheets with an offset spatula, leaving about 1/2 inch (13 mm) between each cutout.
8 | Baking time will vary considerably with cookie size and thickness. Bake until the cookies are firm to the touch and lightly browned around the edges, about 8 to 10 minutes for 2 1/2-inch (6.4-cm) round cookies. Let particularly long or delicately shaped cookies cool 1 to 2 minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to wire racks. Otherwise, immediately transfer the cookies. Cool completely before frosting and/or assembling with my Royal Icing or storing.
Since I’ve forever been infatuated with my mom’s anise seed variation of my Signature Sugar Cookie Dough (again, in my books), a similar whole-seed spin on this gingerbread seemed like the next most logical twist!
Follow the steps above, except sprinkle each cookie sheet with 1 1/2 teaspoons crushed or coarsely ground coriander seeds before placing and baking the cookies in Step 7.
And, last but not least, if you’re more of a visual learner, check out my YouTube video for this recipe:
In addition to taking you through the dough-making process in this video, I get a little geeky by sharing some food science to help you tweak your own recipes for 3-D contoured cookie work. You’ll learn about four recipe- and process-related variables that, in my opinion, most contribute to the spreading of dough, and how to control these variables to minimize spreading (naturally!), cracking, and misshaping. Last but not least, I compare the recipe above to dough made with coconut oil and honey (instead of shortening and molasses). These comparisons are depicted in photo 5 and explained in great detail in the video.
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20 Responses
Hello, does it make a difference using crisco instead of butter.
Yes, the dough will spread a little less with shortening than with butter; I also think the flavor of the spices comes through better with shortening. The butter flavor competes with them a bit.
How thick do you roll the dough for your fireplace?
It depends on which part of it I’m making, but, generally speaking, I roll the dough no thicker than 3/16 inch to make sure it holds a rectangular shape and doesn’t spread too much. For the embossed “brick” pieces, it’s also better to roll on the thinner side for the same reason. If the dough is too thick (> 3/16 inch), it will spread more and the definition in the embossed dough will be lost (or diminished). Hope this helps. Show me your fireplace if you make it! 🙂
Hi Julia,
Can I add red food coloring to your cutout cookie gingerbread recipe? If so how much would you recommend?
I am planning on making a 3D red pickup truck with your recipe (for Valentine’s Day).
Thank you for your help!
Hi, Eleanor, it’s a fairly dark dough, so unless you modify it by taking out the molasses, the red coloring is unlikely to show up well. You could make my honey variation of it (substitute a pourable honey one-to-one, by weight, for the molasses) to end up with a lighter (and sweeter, somewhat softer) dough that would show the red coloring better. (Or use sugar cookie dough if your project is small.) I’ve never added red coloring to my honey variation, so I can’t say how much, and the quantity would very much depend on whether you’re adding a liquid, liqua-gel, gel, or powdered coloring. Obviously, these colorings vary in liquid content and coloring intensity. I would recommend a more concentrated gel or liqua-gel coloring (definitely not liquid), and add it gradually as your last addition in the mixer until you get the color you want. The added coloring may soften the dough, so you will likely have to add more flour. I wish I could be more precise, but not having tested it myself, I can’t be. Hopefully though, I’ve given you enough guidance to test it successfully on your own. Let me know how it goes! 🙂
Hello Julia. Could you please clarify when you have time.
Your web site recipe for contoured gingerbread dough specifies 22.7 oz – 643 grams of flour. However, you taught us that a cup of flour is 5.1 oz. Do you intend that the gingerbread dough for the contoured cookies be a bit “softer” so that it cracks less? Thus we should use 22.7 grams of flour instead of 25.5? Thank you very much for any clarification that you can supply.
I’ve just fine-tuned the volumetric to weight conversions recently, and this recipe is a bit more accurate. If you find this dough spreads too much over contoured cookies, just work more flour into it. But this is the recipe is my latest.
Thank you Julia, I apologize for bothering you. I reviewed all the videos today and noticed that you stated that you had amended your original recipe. I actually mixed both versions yesterday. And yes, 726 gram (25.6 oz) version is “smoother” for contoured cookies. The 643 gram (22.7oz) version did not crack for the contoured cookies but was more “textured” overall. So, I learned the difference for future use. Thanks again.
No bother; though not sure what you mean by “more textured overall”. I used this recipe for contoured cookies today, and the cookies all baked up smooth and crack-free; not “textured” in any way. But a lot of its behavior has to do with how thinly you roll it prior to shaping.
I realized that I made a mixing error that could have caused the slightly textured surface on the hemispheres.
Due to a distraction, I added the flour right after creaming the shortening/egg/sugar. I should have added the molasses/vinegar first.
Normally, I would have started over
but I decided to proceed and added the molasses/vinegar. Perhaps I did not blend the batter well enough. Not wanting to overbeat, I also mixed the batter by hand. No cracking resulted – just a slightly rough surface. I followed the correct procedure when I made the 22.7 oz/ 643 gram version and that resulted in a smooth texture.
Thank you for your interest Julia.
Hope you have a class in NYC some day.
I’m not sure the order of operations would have made the difference in the texture, but it’s hard to say without having seen what was done. At any rate, I hope it all ended up okay in the end. I would love to get to New York one day too. 🙂 If you know of a possible interested host venue, please let me know, as I only travel to teach upon an invitation/offer from a host.
Hi there.
How do you do to bake a 3d cookie with round shape? I mean a concave one and not to loose the shape?
I will appreciate a lot your kindness in sharing this please.
Thanks in advance
Hi, Claudia, You use a non-spreading dough, and bake the cookies over or in molds. I have many YouTube videos that show how to do this, so I suggest you check out my YouTube channel (called JuliaMUsher, here: https://www.youtube.com/user/JuliaMUsher).
I’m using the gingerbread recipe & trying to create a curved band around a cake tin that is propped on its side as in your tutorial. My dough is tearing in the oven. Any tips on what I may be doing wrong?
Hard to say, Allison, without seeing the dough and watching how you mixed and rolled it. Did you cut the leavening in half, as the recipe suggests for contoured cookies? Did you roll the dough thinly, about 1/8 to 3/16 inch, as also suggested for contoured cookies? (Thinner is better, as the less mass of dough on top, the less likely the dough is to spread and crack over curved surfaces. Also the lesser mass is less likely to “drag down” the dough and cause it to crack.) Ingredient substitutions (and differences across countries, i.e., Australian flour has a different gluten content, I believe, than that in the US) or mis-measurements could also impact the results. My best suggestions are to check the gluten content in your flour (I give the figure for mine in the handout from the tutorial you purchased); re-watch some of my contoured cookie-shaping videos (I also shape half-cylinders in that video); and roll the dough thinner and/or add flour (increase the flour:fat ratio) to diminish spreading. Hope that helps.
Thanks so much julia. I managed to work it out. I think I was rolling it a little too thick. I was really suprised at how thin it can be rolled. Thanks so much
Great – so glad it worked out for you! I know, it’s a bit ironic, but the thinner you roll a contoured piece, the more sturdy it ends up because it doesn’t spread/crack as much and then slide down the sides of the mold.
Hi Julia,
I am making gingerbread houses that need to last 3 or more months. Does this dough hold the shape after baking? Some of the other recipes I have tried, the baked pieces bend over time. Thank you.
Any cookie dough can bend and wilt over time if it’s displayed in a humid environment, as cookie dough contains sugar, and sugar attracts moisture. The best safeguard against humidity is to ice/lightly coat the back sides of the supporting gingerbread pieces with royal icing if you don’t intend to fully ice their fronts.