The holidays are a great time to bake cookies and a fun idea is to recreate Gingy! Gingy is probably the most famous of the modern gingerbread cookies, since it’s one of the most memorable characters from the popular Shrek movie saga.
If you watched the first movie, you surely remember the scene when Lord Farquaad, the villain, is questioning Gingy using his devious interrogation techniques. This is one of my favorite parts!
And even if you haven’t watched any of the Shrek movies, I can assure you this is one of the cutest and yummiest gingerbread cookies out there and it’s a perfect recipe to make for the holiday season.
What you need to make Gingy
- Piping bags and tips
- Hand Mixer
- Baking tray
- Parchment paper
- Gingerbread cookie cutter or my template below 😋
Tips to make great gingerbread cookies
Making gingerbread cookies fills your home with a festive scent that will cheer you up. I love the spicy notes and freshly baked goodies smell! Below I’m sharing some tips so that you can make great a gingerbread cookies easily:
- Starting with the dough, make sure you have all of its ingredients at room temperature before starting– they should be pliable but not too soft or sticky so that excess flour can easily get pulled away when kneading by hand or in an electric mixer.
- Whisk the dry ingredients to mix them well to distribute the strong scent and flavors evenly.
- Add the dry ingredients slowly to the bowl with the wet ingredients. Don’t stop mixing while integrating both.
- Flour generously the surface and the rolling pin to flatten the dough, because it’s very sticky.
- Prepare the royal icing while the raw gingerbread cookies are cooling. You can start with the gumdrop buttons since they’ll take around 20 minutes to be ready.
For all the ingredients and a step-by-step guide, check the recipe below.
Fun Gingerbread Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ¾ cups brown sugar
- ⅔ cup molasses
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ½ tsp clove powder
Gumdrop buttons
- 1½ tbsps flavored gelatin powder
- 1½ tsp hydrated unflavored gelatin powder
- ½ cup water
Icing
- 1½ tbsp meringue powder
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tbsps warm water
Instructions
- In a bowl, beat butter at room temperature until it's soft. Then, add brown sugar and mix well. Beat in molasses, and add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Now add vanilla extract and keep mixing for a couple of minutes.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, ginger powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add dry ingredients to the bowl with the wet mixture. Incorporate in small amounts, beating until integrating everything. The dough will look a bit dry, but you'll know it's done when it gets thick and compact.
- Take all the dough from the bowl, split it into two discs, and wrap each disc in plastic. Then, stick into the fridge for 3 hours.
- Flour a clean surface generously because the gingerbread dough is very sticky. Put one disc on the floured surface and flatten it with a rolling pin, previously floured. Stretch the dough until it's around 1/2 inch thick.
- Now, it's time to cut the cookies. You can use a gingerbread cookie cutter or my template. Then, transfer each cookie to a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Now, you can soften the borders if you want. I used a chopstick for this.
- To recreate Gingy's legs, make a straight mark on each leg. Now, place in a preheated oven at 350 °F for 10 minutes.
- While the cookies are baking and cooling down, you can prepare the decorations. Start with the royal icing, mixing powdered sugar and powdered meringue in a bowl. Whisk and add water at room temperature. Beat until it's homogeneous and shiny.
- Split the icing into three small containers. Then, add blue gel food coloring and red to the other. Now save white icing for the rest of the decoration.
- Now, make one of the most memorable decor pieces: gumdrop buttons. In a separate small bowl, mix powdered unflavored gelatin and water. Put water to medium heat on a pan and add violet flavored gelatin. Then, mix both in the pan and make a thin gelatin layer in a container with a flat bottom. Then, let it cool in the fridge for 20 minutes or until it's solid.
- By now, the cookies should be at room temperature. Fill a piping bag with the white icing and decorate, using a picture as a reference. If you make a mistake, don't fret, you can use a toothpick to make corrections—Decor the arms, eyes, and legs. Remember to draw a few straight lines to recreate Gingy's legs. Then, use the blue icing for the eyebrows and the red icing for the mouth.
- Once the gumdrop is ready, cut the buttons using a round piping bag tip. Cover the buttons with sugar and add a bit of white icing to stick the gumdrop buttons to the gingerbread.
- And it's done! If you have the heart to eat these cute gingerbread cookies, you can do it now.
Video
Notes
If you liked this gingerbread cookies recipe, you might like some of my other recipes too.
And remember, if you try this recipe and want to share your pictures, tag me @lacooquette on Instagram. I’d love to share your photos on my IG stories.
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