Every year at this time of year, my mother bakes dozens and dozens of Swedish gingersnaps, called pepparkakor, to give to family and friends. The recipe came from my grandmother, whose parents were Swedish, and it calls for chopped slivered almonds in the dense, spicy dough.

I grew up eating these cookies by the pound as a child and they are a family favorite. But my poor Zuzu cannot eat almonds and we’ve spent the past twelve years trying to figure out what to do about it. Make the cookies without almonds? That’s one option, but without the white almonds, they look rather boring and lack any interesting textural element.

This year, I had an idea: what if we made the cookies without almonds and then decorated them with some plain white icing? I was worried that icing these cookies would be considered heresy, but luckily no one objected.

The result is a spicy, slightly chewy — as long as you don’t overbake them —  ginger cookie with a little extra sweetness and textural interest from the icing. Not only are these iced cookies delicious, but we had such fun decorating them.  I tried spirals, zig-zags, snowflakes and even a Santa face or two.

These are what my grandmother would have called icebox cookies. You make the dough one day, refrigerate it overnight and bake the cookies the next day. I also recommend using light-colored baking sheets. My mother spent several years burning her cookies until I suggested that she replace her cookie sheets and sure enough, the cookies stopped coming out too dark.

The recipe also is egg-free, which makes it great for vegan baking, so long as you use something other than butter, or people with egg allergies. Plus, you can taste the dough without worry!

So if you are looking for another cookie to add to your Christmas baking repertoire, give these iced gingersnaps a try. I can’t really call them pepparkakor, but they might just become a new family tradition.

Print

Yum

Iced Gingersnaps

Ingredients

Cookies
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup light molasses
• 3 1/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 TB ground ginger
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp salt
Icing
• 2 cups sifted powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 TB milk

Instructions

1. Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of a standing mixer using the paddle attachment.
2. Add molasses.
3. Sift dry ingredients together in a bowl and gradually blend in to the butter-sugar mixture.
4. Divide dough in half -- it should be stiff.
5. Roll each half into logs approximately 3 inches in diameter. Wrap logs in waxed paper and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
6. Preheat oven to 350.
7. Slice chilled dough into cookies approximately 1/4 inch thick and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. You should have between 16 and 20 cookies to a sheet depending on size.
8. Bake 8-10 minutes at 350. Watch carefully for they will burn!
9. Cool cookies completely before icing.
10. To make icing, whisk together powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk in a medium bowl. It should be fairly stiff but pipable.
11. Fill a piping bag or a plastic big (with the corner cut off) with icing.
12. Pipe designs onto cookies. Allow icing to harden completely before storing.

Schema/Recipe SEO Data Markup by Yummly Rich Recipes

0.1

https://www.westoftheloop.com/2015/12/22/iced-gingersnaps/