Gingerbread man: recipes, features and recommendations

Prepared by: Tanya Bozik

11/22/2017 Cooking time: 1 hour 0 minutes

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Many people know how to make a gingerbread man - another attribute of the New Year and Christmas holidays! Children will especially enjoy these pastries due to their beautiful shape and decorations.

Gingerbread men: photos, finished products

The famous gingerbread man is a pastry in the shape of a man , which first gained popularity and became widespread in the USA and Europe. This funny gingerbread can be made with any aromatic additives : honey, ginger, mint, cinnamon. Together with the gingerbread house , it is an integral symbol of Christmas and New Year in many countries.

The finished product must be painted and decorated with chocolate and white icing . Often the gingerbread is also decorated with colored sweet powder , candied fruits and even M&M's candies. You can draw anything you want on a person: facial features, eyes, mouth, nose, buttons, clothes, vest, scarf, mittens and much more.

INTERESTING: The production and home baking of such gingerbread began back in the 16th century . This happened in England, in the courtyard of Queen Elizabeth the First . According to the whims of the royal person, bakers made sweets similar to the lady’s close people and guests.

Since then, sweet figurines have become very popular and in demand all over the world. Until now, people try to cheer up others with the help of this simple baking. For example, making huge gingerbread cookies . The largest man was baked in Texas in 2006 and weighed 600 kilograms . Such a gingerbread man could not go unnoticed and was even listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

Also, during the New Year, some countries, such as England, organize races dressed as gingerbread men. The image of sweetness is a cartoon hero, and in 2008 a monument to him was even erected in Smithville .

INTERESTING: Every Russian-speaking person knows the fairy tale about the kolobok. But it’s unlikely that everyone knows that an earlier version of this story was popular back in the 18th century and it told about how the gingerbread man ran away from home and was eventually eaten in the forest.

The Tale of the Gingerbread Man

Each baked gingerbread man is handmade by a master. Therefore, all gingerbread cookies are different and unique, even if they are a little similar to each other. Adults and children will certainly enjoy such baked goods for the New Year and during Christmas celebrations.

Finished products, gingerbread men:

Gingerbread men: boy and girl

Gingerbread men decorated with icing and chocolate

Gingerbread men decorated with icing and M&M's candies

Gingerbread men in sweaters and icing hats

Gingerbread man with colored buttons

A modern and classic way to decorate a gingerbread man with icing

New Year's gingerbread men

Family of gingerbread men, colored icing for decorating gingerbread cookies

How it was

A long time ago, Queen Elizabeth I of England decided to surprise her guests and present them with an unusual Christmas treat. She ordered cookies to be baked, resembling the shape of the noble invited persons. The chefs did a great job: the delicacy was decorated with intricate swirls of glaze and turned out to be surprisingly tasty. And the idea itself turned out to be very successful: the guests were interested in recognizing themselves in the sweet and aromatic treat. Word spread about it, and soon the idea of baking bread in the shape of little men had already settled in the homes of ordinary people. This is how a delicious and kind New Year’s tradition – the Christmas gingerbread man – began to travel around the world. The recipe for its preparation has been changed, improved, and today it has come to us, perhaps, in its best form. It is customary to bake cookies, put them in multi-colored holiday bags and give them to children; they also decorate the Christmas tree and the house, treat guests, and according to legend, the gingerbread man is Santa Claus’s favorite treat.

Gingerbread dough, honey, ginger, custard for a man: recipes

Each housewife has her own recipe for making gingerbread men . To do this, you need to make a tasty dough: simple or with aromatic additives. This pastry is original in that it has a long shelf life (up to a month).

The interesting thing is that the longer the gingerbread is stored, the tastier it is, as it “ripens.” You should not add raisins, candied fruits or M&M's candies to the dough - this will ruin its structure and taste. The glaze is prepared separately from egg white and powdered sugar. If desired, colored food coloring is added to it.

Decorating gingerbread cookies with icing

Honey dough for gingerbread: recipe

You will need:

Flour - 3 cups (this is approximately 700 g, be sure to sift and use premium flour).
Sugar - 70 g (white or brown)
Honey - 200 g (any kind can be used, but acacia honey is more aromatic).
Egg - 1 piece + 3 yolks (without whites!)
Baking soda – 10 g
Water - 1 glass

If desired, you can add a pinch of vanillin or vanilla extract to the dough.

Preparation:

Honey must be poured with a glass of hot water , but not boiling water. This is very important, since all the beneficial and tasteful qualities of honey disappear when exposed to too high temperatures. Cool the diluted liquid.
In another bowl, beat the egg whites with a small pinch of salt until foamy. After the first foam forms, add sugar and continue whisking. Once a thick, stable mass has formed, add the yolks and continue beating for another five minutes. At this stage, you can add the desired spices or vanillin to the dough .
Add diluted honey to the whipped mixture Gradually add flour and do not stop beating until the flour runs out. The finished dough should not be too stiff. Let it rest for at least 5 hours before baking.
After this, the dough is kneaded and rolled out again . You should cut out a little man from it using a mold. The gingerbread cookies are laid out on parchment paper and baked in the oven for 15-20 minutes at a temperature of no more than 180 degrees. The cooled gingerbread is decorated with icing.

How to make honey gingerbread?

Mint gingerbread dough: recipe

You will need:

Flour - 1.5 cups (this is approximately 350 g of sifted premium flour).
Sugar - 150 g (adjust the sweetness of the gingerbread according to your taste, add more or less sugar).
Water - 100 ml (this is approximately 0.5 cups)
Vegetable oil - 3 tbsp. (preferably use olive oil).
Mint essence - 1.5 tsp. (can be bought at the pharmacy, replace with mint tincture if desired).
Baking soda - 1 tsp.

Preparation:

Flour must be sifted together with soda
in a saucepan and dissolve sugar in it. The resulting syrup should be boiled for a few more minutes and allowed to cool.
Add mint tincture or essence to the cooled syrup and mix thoroughly.
Pour the flour into a heap, pour oil into it and gradually add mint syrup, knead the dough. You can add more oil to make the dough more elastic.
The kneaded dough is wrapped in film. He should “rest” for half an hour in the refrigerator.
The dough is rolled out. People are cut out of it using a mold and laid out on parchment paper. Gingerbread cookies are baked in the oven for 15-20 minutes at a temperature of no more than 180 degrees. The cooled gingerbread is decorated with icing.

How to make delicious mint gingerbread?

Gingerbread dough: recipe

You will need:

Flour - 2 heaped glasses (this is approximately 600 g of sifted premium flour).
Egg - 1 pc.
Sugar - 1 cup (adjust the sweetness of the gingerbread according to your taste: add more or less sugar).
Honey - 10 tbsp. (a tablespoon contains approximately 20 g of honey, therefore you need 200 g of honey in the dough).
Butter 73% fat content - 150 g (cannot be replaced with margarine!).
Grated or dry powdered ginger - 1 tsp.
Baking powder - 1 sachet or 1 tsp.
Cognac - 3 tbsp.

Spices to taste: vanillin, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, citrus zest and so on.

Preparation:

in the microwave , add sugar and mix these ingredients thoroughly. Instead of a microwave, you can use a steam bath. Let the mixture cool.
to the cooled mixture . Mix thoroughly.
The flour should be sifted and gradually added to the honey mass. When the flour runs out, knead the dough again and wrap it in film. rest in the refrigerator
The dough is rolled out. People are cut out of it using a mold and laid out on parchment paper. Gingerbread cookies are baked in the oven for 10-15 minutes at a temperature of no more than 180 degrees. The cooled gingerbread is decorated with icing.

How to make delicious gingerbread?

Choux pastry for gingerbread with cinnamon: recipe

You will need:

Milk - 1 glass (a full glass is 250 ml of milk)
Flour - 2.5 cups (this is 600 grams of sifted flour + 50 g for sprinkling).
Sugar - 1 cup (you can adjust the sweetness of the gingerbreads yourself: add more or less sugar).
Egg - 2 pcs + 2 yolks (without whites, you can use the whites to make glaze.
Cinnamon - to taste (the spice is quite strong, do not use too much of it, in any quantity it will give aroma).
Vegetable oil - 50 ml.
Vanillin - 1 pack
Baking powder - 1 package

Preparation:

into a saucepan or cooking ladle and put it on the fire.
Bring the milk to a boil. At this time, carefully sift a glass of flour and mix it with sugar.
should be gradually added to hot milk (not boiling water!) . This must be done gradually and quickly so that the dough does not form lumps.
The choux pastry should be quite liquid. Add vegetable oil to the still hot dough, mix the mixture thoroughly and let it cool.
Sift the second glass of flour into the cooled custard mixture and mix everything well again.
The next step is adding eggs and cinnamon. Knead the dough actively and do it for a long time, adding flour each time.
The dough should come out soft. It shouldn't stick to your hands.
Roll out the dough and cut out the people with a special mold. Place the gingerbread cookies on parchment and bake for 25 minutes at 160-170 degrees.

How to make gingerbread cookies from choux pastry with cinnamon?

Act on your inspiration

The beauty of cooking is that it allows you to endlessly fantasize. And when it comes to baking, there's definitely no limit to inspiration. Therefore, preparing desserts attracts not only an adult cook, but also a young cook. Everyone can also have their own recipe for spiced cookies.

In addition to cinnamon and ginger, you can add nutmeg, hazelnuts, and chocolate pieces to the dough. Exotic ingredients cannot be ruled out either - coconut flakes, dried or fresh banana, and so on. Some people use their other favorite spices.

Or keep the ingredients classic and experiment with decorating the man. Instead of eyes and buttons, there may be chocolate drops or confectionery dragees, as an example. From glaze it is possible to make the most unusual pattern that you can think of.

We must not forget about the confectionery topping. Specialized stores sell a large amount of curly sprinkles. A good decoration for cookies would be flowers, snowflakes or bows.

If you don’t really want to bother with the design, there is this option: grease the top of the spiced cookies with melted chocolate, honey, syrup or other sweet cream. Without waiting for the layer to dry, sprinkle it with chopped nuts.

And someone will take a different path and make not only little men, but also a gingerbread house for them. Here you will need to respect the dimensions of the future structure so that it does not turn out uneven. The front and rear walls should be the same size, as should the “roof”. If desired, make windows and doors.

The parts of the house are first baked according to the same recipe as the men, and after cooling they are glued together with icing or protein cream. You can also use glaze to paint tiles on the roof and “nails” on the walls. Powdered sugar will perfectly represent snow. And how many floors there are in the house, and whether it will be small or large - you decide for yourself.

For New Year or Christmas, a spicy treat can also be served in a rather unusual way. In general, decorating Christmas trees with cookies is more common in the West and America, but why not try to do the same? Make a loop of dough for the gingerbread treat in advance; in addition, you can bake bells, birds, and stars.

Thread a ribbon into the baked product and please your friends and family with a delicious sweet “Christmas tree toy”. Children are especially delighted with this.

Why not make gingerbread baked goods in a slightly oriental style? Many people know about Chinese fortune cookies. Or you can show your imagination: gingerbread cookies with a fortune. To do this, when baking gingerbread “fortune tellers,” fold their “handles” as if they were grasping something.

To prevent the dough from falling, secure it with a ball of foil or baking paper. Then write the predictions on pieces of paper, fold them and “hand” them to the finished figures. Each guest who takes a cookie will receive their own omen.

There are actually a lot of options. There is also a slightly different option for making spiced cookies, which is simpler and faster:

In this video, the entire recipe for a simple ginger dough is shown step by step; you can clearly see that it does not require any special expenses for products.

Gingerbread man: pattern, baking dish

It is impossible to bake a gingerbread man without a special mold . As a rule, this is a silicone or metal figurine with an empty middle. You can purchase such a mold at a hardware store or order it on the website.

If you do not have the opportunity to purchase a ready-made mold, you will need to cut out a pattern from cardboard and, applying it to the dough, trace the figure with the tip of a knife each time.

Gingerbread man figures and pattern:

Pattern for a gingerbread man

Culinary cutters for cutting gingerbread men from dough

Making a mold

In fact, today such baking is not a problem; almost every store sells the form. The gingerbread man can be cut out using a pastry cutter or baked in silicone molds. By the way, the size can also be different - from very tiny to large and voluminous cookies. If you don’t find such utensils in your store, don’t worry. This is not at all a reason to think that the gingerbread man will not come to visit your kids on Christmas Eve. The cookie template can be cut out of plain paper and given the silhouette that suits you best. All that remains is to roll out the dough, place a paper pattern on top and cut it into shape with a regular knife.

There is one more idea you can use. The gingerbread man mold can be made from thin tin tape. All that remains is to give it the shape of a man. For the material, you can use an empty can of Coca-Cola or other drink. Cut off the top and bottom of the can. Cut the resulting cylinder in half - this will give you a rectangular sheet. All that remains is to cut long strips, give them shape and fasten the edges. This pattern is placed on the rolled out ginger dough and a gingerbread man is cut out with light pressure. You can use the cookie recipe from this article.

How to buy a baking dish for a gingerbread man on Aliexpress?

profitably purchase the necessary mold for baking gingerbread cookies on the Aliexpress store . There is a large catalog of products for working with dough : brushes , and metal molds , potholders , dishes and much more .

You can sell your first product using the simple site navigation. If you want to receive bonuses for purchases or a discount coupon from the seller, you should go through a simple registration procedure.

IMPORTANT: All that is required of you is to fill out a special form where you indicate only your name, address and contacts.

Finding baking pans is very easy. To do this, you need to select “For Home and Garden” and find the “Bakeware” folder . A catalog of various silicone and metal molds will open to your eyes .

How to find the right product category on Aliexpress: baking dishes

Do you know?

Gingerbread cookies in the shape of a man have a fun and busy life. He became a real hero of films and cartoons. And almost every child from Western countries knows the fairy tale “About the Gingerbread Man.” The most interesting thing is that the main character in it - a man made of gingerbread dough - completely repeats the story of our Kolobok, who jumped out of the oven and left his grandparents. Many different stories happen to the little man, each storyteller tells them in his own way. But the fairy tale ends, nevertheless, just as sadly - the gingerbread traveler is eaten by the cunning and sneaky Fox.

New Year and Christmas gingerbread man at home step by step?

Gingerbread man - the baked goods are delicious, and most importantly - beautiful. But even this sweetness can be made at home. For this, a step-by-step recipe with photos will be useful.

You will need:

Flour - 2 cups (full, approximately 400 g)
Sugar - 0.5 cups (sweetness can be adjusted independently).
Egg - 1 piece (preferably homemade)
Cocoa - 1/3 cup
Butter - 100 g (not less than 73% fat content).
Honey - 1 cup (liquid)
Baking powder - 1 sachet
Cinnamon - to taste
Nutmeg - to taste
Vanilla - to taste

Step-by-step preparation:

The butter is melted and mixed with sugar, cocoa and honey.
Gradually add the egg and add flour portionwise, mix thoroughly and knead the dough.
The finished dough should be firm and elastic. Roll it into a ball and put it in the refrigerator for an hour.
After this, roll out the dough to a thickness of 5 millimeters and cut out the gingerbread men with a mold.
Bake the gingerbread cookies for 20 minutes at 180 degrees.
Let the gingerbreads cool. After this, prepare the glaze and start decorating.
Measure the frosting into a plastic bag. Squeeze out the glaze in a thin stream, drawing out small details. Allow time for the glaze to harden (several hours).

How to knead the dough for a gingerbread man?

How to make a gingerbread man step by step?

Ingredients:

Flour - 380 grams
Butter - 230 grams
Cane sugar - 220 grams
Cold cream cheese - 270 grams
Butter at room temperature - 90 grams
Powdered sugar - 70-90 grams
Egg – 3 pieces
Milk – 250 Milliliters
Molasses - 9 tbsp. spoons
Ground ginger - 5 teaspoons
Cinnamon – 3 teaspoons
Baking powder - 2 teaspoons
Salt - 0.5 teaspoons
Orange zest - 1-2 teaspoons
Cocoa - To taste
Food coloring - To taste

Number of servings: 6

Icing for the gingerbread man: recipe

White glaze:

Pour 1 tbsp into a saucepan. freshly squeezed lemon juice and 1 tbsp. water.
Without waiting for it to boil, add powdered sugar a little at a time and mix the mixture thoroughly with a spoon.
In total you need 100 g of powdered sugar.
The glaze should be applied while hot, as cold hardens quickly.
You can apply the glaze through a pastry bag, a brush, or a medical syringe.

Chocolate glaze:

Melt 100 g dark chocolate in a saucepan
Mixing the mass thoroughly, add 100 g of butter to the chocolate.
Once the butter has melted, add 100g of powdered sugar. The glaze is ready to be applied to the gingerbread.

How to make icing for a gingerbread man?

You can quickly dry the glaze on the gingerbread in the oven in a few minutes

Gingerbread man decoration for the New Year

Gingerbread decorations with glaze can be very diverse: classic, modern, detailed, colored, black and white, with the addition of sprinkles, candied fruits, raisins, candies.

Ideas for decorating gingerbread men with icing:

Simple painting of gingerbread cookies, colored glaze

Colorful detailed coloring of gingerbread cookies with colored glaze

Unusual coloring of gingerbread men

Simple painting of gingerbread cookies and decoration with ribbons

Gingerbread man decorated with confectionery powder