Gluten Free Gingerbread Cookies

Gluten Free Gingerbread Cutouts

With Christmas just a few days away I thought I’d bring you these gluten free gingerbread cut-out cookies.  Gluten free Bisquick makes this even easier than my old ginger bread cookie recipe.  And don’t you think gingerbread cookies just scream the arrival of the holidays.  

These buttery cookies with their warm spices will delight anyone that takes a bite.  The texture and flavor of these can’t be beat.  Although these cookies hold their shape perfectly, this is not the recipe to use if you’re trying to build a gingerbread house.  For that you’d need a recipe that makes a very sturdy finished product and you’ll need to glue it all together with royal icing.   Maybe I’ll have the time to do that for you next year.  

For those of you who might not have the time to tackle rolling out a batch of cut-out cookies the video tutorial shows you haw to make the gingerbread chocolate cookies pictured at the bottom of the page.

Gingerbread Cookies

Prep time: 15 min

Bake time: 10-12 min

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
• ¼ cup molasses
• 2 eggs
• 3 ½  cups g f Bisquick or GF self rising flour (see note)
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp allspice
• ¼ tsp nutmeg

Video Tutorial

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (or 175 °C)
2. Stir together the gluten free Bisquick and spices then set aside.
3. Cream together the butter, brown sugar and molasses until light and fluffy then scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula, add the eggs and beat until you have a smooth fluffy mixture.
4. Stop the mixer; add the dry ingredients and beat until you have the dough thoroughly combined.  Be sure to stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl a few times to ensure you have it well combined. 
5. Divide the dough into three equal parts then transfer each section onto a sheet of plastic wrap and pat the dough into a rectangular shape, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for ½ hour.      
6. During the last 15 minutes of the chill time, preheat the oven to 350°F or 175°C. 
7. Roll out the dough between 2 sheets of plastic wrap on top of a cutting board for easier  transport to the fridge. 
8. Roll the dough to just over 1/8 inch thick then transfer the cutting board with the plastic covered sheet of dough to the fridge for 10 min or so to chill and firm up before cutting the cookies. 
9. To cut them out, remove the top sheet of plastic and use whatever cutters you want to cut the cookies then transfer the cookies to the baking sheet and bake them for 10-12 minutes.  Cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
10. To decorate the cookies I used a powdered sugar glaze that involves mixing roughly 1 cup of confectioner’s sugar with 1 tbsp of water or milk until smooth.  Try to keep the glaze on the thick side so that it is easier to work with. 

Notes: 
I used a Ziploc bag with a tiny corner snipped off to do my decorating.    
If you’re not following a gluten free diet you can stir together (3 ½ cups flour, 2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, ¼ teaspoon salt) in place of the gluten free Bisquick.

Chocolate Gingerbread Spice Cookies

Be sure to watch the video to see this second cookie that can easily be made with the same dough.  These cookies are frosted with a Bailey’s Irish Cream chocolate glaze. Once the glaze sinks into the cookie and dries, you’re left with a cookie that almost has a cake-like consistency.  Whenever you can make a few kinds of cookies with the same dough, I’d say you’re ahead of the ballgame.