Best Omas Danish Gingerbread Cookies Recipes

GREAT-GRANDMA'S OATMEAL COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. Cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in water. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; add to creamed mixture, and mix well. Stir in oats, raisins and walnuts. , On a surface sprinkled with additional sugar, roll dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 2-1/2-in. cookie cutter in desired shapes. Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Bake until set, 12-15 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool.

DANISH GINGERBREAD COOKIES

Steps:

• In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and then stir in the sugar and whipping cream.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, ginger, spices, baking soda, and baking powder.
• Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir on low speed until combined.
• Preheat oven to 400°F.
• Roll dough into one inch balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheets lined with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
• Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, until cookies puff up and edges become golden. Let cookies cool on the tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

OMA'S GINGER COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 2 cookie sheets.
• Beat 1 cup sugar, butter, molasses, and egg together in a mixing bowl using an electric mixer.
• Sift flour, baking soda, ginger, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, cloves, salt, and nutmeg together in a bowl. Beat into butter mixture until combined.
• Combine 1/8 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in a shallow bowl. Roll cookie dough into 1-inch balls. Roll cookies in the sugar-cinnamon mixture to coat. Place on the prepared cookie sheet.
• Bake in the preheated oven until golden and edges are set, about 11 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool at least 5 minutes before serving or storing.

GINGERBREAD COOKIES

Steps:

• Beat together the butter, treacle, brown sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the egg, then beat through all of the remaining dry ingredients apart from the caster sugar. Chill the mixture in the fridge for 1 hr.
• Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 4. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment. Roll the mixture into 20 even-sized balls (weighing for accuracy, if you like). Tip the caster sugar onto a small plate, then add each ball and roll around to coat. Space each ball out on the baking sheets. Bake for 9-10 mins until golden brown. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

OMA'S GINGERBREAD HOUSE

Steps:

• Mix ingredients in order given.
• Flour liberally! It will start out a bit sticky. Just keep adding flour to your board and your rolling pin. Turn it often.
• Roll to a maximum thickness 1/4" (1 cm).
• Bake at 350°F until brown and slightly crisp. It is hard to give a time for how long to bake. It depends on how many pieces you have on your sheet, how thick they are, etc. I found that they all needed a minimum of 8 minutes. And then I just kept checking every 3 minutes after that.
• Dust the flour off of the pieces after they have cooled. A pstry brush works well for this.
• Glue: Melt a fair amount of sugar in a large heavy pan over low heat. Mom used a cast iron pan. We started with about 2 cups of sugar and ended up adding about another cup. Keep stirring and waiting. You want the sugar to get to the point where it is almost a clear brown. Be careful though, the "glue" burns BADLY if dripped on skin.
• Mom would simply "dip" the edge of the piece that she wanted to glue into the sugar and then press it with the other piece. When it cools, it is VERY hard and holds very well. It does cool quickly though, so work fast.
• For Icing: Beat egg whites until stiff. Slowly add in all of the icing sugar.
• To make cookies: Bake until lightly browned for soft cookies. Crisp cookies will keep better though.
• There is enough dough to make a house and a free form base to put your house on. Or you can simply make a bunch of cookies with the "leftovers".
• Mom has some hand drawn pictures of how to cut out the house. Here are her measurements and directions.
• Cut 2 side walls: 7" x 4".
• Cut 2 roof panels: 9 1/2" x 8".
• Cut 4 chimney pieces: 2 1/4" x 1 1/4" (in two of them, cut a 1" V into the bottom so that it will "straddle" the peak of the roof).
• Cut 2 end walls: 6" x 9" (4" up the sides, cut diagonally to the top center to make a point). In one end, cut out door and two windows. Bake the door along side.
• For the windows: Place foil underneath and fill with crushed lollipop. Bake as usual.
• Base: Simply roll out the leftover dough to make a free form base. Make sure that it is wide enough for the house.
• NOTE ABOUT CLEAN-UP: Don't fret! Your pan that you melted the sugar in is certainly not ruined! All you need to do is add some hot water, let sit for a little while (5-10 minutes) and then rinse it out. If for some reason, that isn't quite working, simply heat the pan full of water over low heat for a short while (again, about 10 minutes).

OMA'S DANISH GINGERBREAD COOKIES

Steps:

• Have all ingredients at room temperature. Cream together: butter, sugar & brown sugar. Add to mixture: molasses & corn syrup. Sift together dry ingredients and then add to creamed mixture. Mix well. When good consistency for rolling, divide into small batches & wrap in waxed paper. Chill over night. Bring to right temperature for rolling, roll, cut using gingerbread men molds and place on cookie sheet. Decorate the cookies with current eyes, red hots for noses. Make a tiny hole at the head to insert wire for hanging. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. After the cookies have cooled completely, ice the bottom half, making skirts and pants. Insert wires for hanging.