Recipe: 'Tis the Season for Gingerbread Cookies from the Bakers at Hampton Eats

Perhaps making a good gingerbread cookie is all about, well, following good instructions. Luckily for us, the master bakers at Hampton Eats are sharing their recipe for making and decorating gingerbread cookies that will have your ugly-sweatered guests reveling in the spirit this season.

The bakers at Hampton Eats want to remind you that while preparing the equipment and mixing the ingredients is crucial to a good gingerbread cookie, the best way to leave an impression on your guests this season is to decorate them with your own special artistry.

Feel free to top your cookies with icing, powdered sugar, sprinkles or candy (like M&Ms) to complement your festive holiday style.

For the batch shown here, we’re just making a simple icing out of powdered sugar, milk and vanilla extract.

Hampton Eats Gingerbread Cookies

To make the gingerbread cookies, you will need the following equipment: 

Cookie cutters.
Rolling pin
Mixer: Either a stand mixer or hand mixer will be fine.
Pastry bag for icing (optional).

The following ingredients are required for preparation and baking of the gingerbread cookies:

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (We traditionally use all-purpose flour for this recipe, but pastry flour or white whole wheat flour will also work.)
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ginger
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves.
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon Baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

Making perfect gingerbread cookies is simple and easy if you follow these steps!

Whisk together your dry ingredients. Flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, cloves, salt and nutmeg.

Beat the dough. Using either a stand mixer or a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add in eggs and molasses and beat on medium speed until combined. Then gradually add in the flour mixture and beat on medium-low speed until just combined.

Chill the dough. Divide the dough into two equal portions and form them each into a ball. Then gently use your hands to flatten each ball into a 1-inch-thick disk, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerator for an hour or so until the dough is chilled but still slightly pliable.

Roll and cut the dough. Unwrap one of the discs and place it on a lightly floured surface. Use a floured rolling pin to roll the dough evenly until it is approximately 1/8-inch thick. Then use your favorite cookie cutters to cut out your desired shapes, re-rolling the dough as needed to cut out more. Transfer the dough shapes to a parchment-covered baking sheet.

Bake at 350°F for about 8 to 10 minutes, or until the cookies are crisp around the edges and on top. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Decorate: Once the cookies cool to room temperature, feel free to decorate them as desired with the icing (see below) and serve.

Decorating and/or garnish options:

Icing: We typically just use a quick powdered sugar icing. But royal icing, maple icing, or any other kind of frosting you like would work.

Powdered / Snowing sugar: Feel free to dust your cookies lightly with powdered sugar.

Red hots: Red hots would be best choice into our gingerbread, which is delicious for sure.

Sprinkles: There are so many fun sprinkles that you could add to these cookies! Lately we’ve been loving all the fun sprinkle mixes from Sprinkle Pop. Or if you happen to be looking for some naturally colored sprinkles.

A simple icing recipe:

2 cups powdered sugar
2–3 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Hampton Eats, located at 74 North Main Street, East Hampton, has also announced a 12 Days of Giveaways in honor of the holiday season! Customers may enter to win 12 prizes by visiting the store and completing an entry form. Giveaway prizes will begin to be drawn December 10–22.

Winners have 30 days to redeem their prize. Prizes range from an 18 in. pizza with one topping of choice to a box of 10 cream croissants to 3 Kings pie.

Learn more at hampton-eats.com.