This gingerbread cookies I baked two times and the second time I made them thinner – these were much more better It’s sad that ducks, elephants, mice and butterflies didn’t survived till photo session.. By the way, I don’t know why but butterflies were most popular Maybe because they were very colourful… This is the last entry about Christmas baking. So what now? Will be waiting for the spring?

100 g margarine or butter

200 g honey

200 g sugar

2 eggs

500 g flour

1 packet of baking powder

1 teaspoon spice mix for gingerbreads

Spice mix for gingerbreads:

6 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons allspice

2 teaspoons cloves

1 teaspoon muscat

Melt butter, sugar and honey. Cool a little bit then beat in eggs and whisk. In another bowl sift flour and baking powder. Step by step mix flour with wet ingredients. Wrap the dough in foil and chill not less than 3 hours. Then roll down the dough as thick as you can on floured surface. Cut shapes what you like and bake in preheated oven at 180°C.

Source: Supermamos forumas

One more way to make your kids happy. Preparation takes time because you have to chill the dough long. But the cookies are delicious and we liked it, out kids kindergarden liked them too

2 1/2 cups cake flour

1-2 tsp baking powder (I liked cookies more when I used only 1 tsp)

1/2 tsp fine salt

3/4 cup (170 g) butter

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar (you can add only 1/2 cup and it will taste great too)

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla sugar

25-50 g chocolate, melted and cooled

For decorating:

Small round candies for eyes

Cashews for beak

In a bowl, sift flour with baking powder and salt. Set aside. In mixing bowl, cream butter with electric mixer at medium speed, beat until creamy smooth, then gradually add brown sugar, incorporating well. Add egg, vanilla and mix well. Stir in flour mixture, adding 1/4 cup at a time until well mixed. Divide cookie dough into thirds. Mix chocolate in 1/3 dough. Cover and chill until the dough can be easily handled. Divide the plain and chocolate dough in half. Return half of the dough to refrigerator. Roll the plain dough to a 12×25 cm rectangle on lightly floured wax paper. Roll the chocolate dough into a 25cm long roll (you’ll get quite big cookies. I made 40cm long roll and plain dough adjusted, so I got medium size cookies that I liked more). Place the chocolate roll on the center of the rectangle. Lift the sides of the of the wax paper to roll cover the chocolate roll with the plain dough. Wrap the wax paper around the dough and chill. Repeat process with remaining cookie dough. Chill dough well, for at least two hours, or overnight.
Preheat oven to 175°C.
Cut the firmly chilled roll into ~1/2 cm slices. Place two sliced cookies touching in the middle on a baking paper. This creates the owl face with two eyes. After all the cookies are placed on the baking sheet, they will have softened. Pinch the top corners of the cookie to make ears (when I used 2 tsp baking powder my owl ears disappeared while baking). Place one candy on each eye. Place cashew nuts for the owl’s beak. Bake the cookies in a oven for 8-12 minutes until lightly browned on the sides. Remove from oven and place cookies on a cooling rack.

Source: - SHARING AND CARING – CAKE DECORATING AND SUGAR ART TUTORIALS

Cookies all alone are very deliciuos so my hubby tried to hide them in his stomach. And when he heard that they will be filled with chocolate he understood that he won’t be able to stop eating them… Sad, but he was wright.

(~50 single cookies or 25 if sandwiched)

1 1/2 cups (190 g) all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

170 g unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/4 cups (240 g) granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 cup (80 g) unsweetened shredded coconut

Filling:

200 g chopped chocolate

1/3 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 190°C. Start the butter in a mixing bowl by whipping it on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy. Pour in the sugar and the vanilla extract and beat that in for another 30 seconds. Then add eggs one at a time, and allow each one to mix in completely before adding in the next. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Then add it to the mixing bowl. Stir it in on slow speed. Toss in the shredded coconut. Scoop tablespoon-sized mounds on to a parchment lined baking sheet. Space them about 5 cm apart since they spread like they mean it. Bake in the oven about 8-10 minutes or till you see golden edges.
For the filling. Melt chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler. Nuke the heavy cream in a microwave safe glass for 40 seconds to get it hot like the chocolate. Pour it over and stir till ganache will be smooth. Fill a pastry bag oufitted with a plain piping tip. Scoop in ganache. Then pipe some ganache on cookie and cover with another cookie. Here you go – you have very tasty cookie sandwiches.

Source: Pastry Pal