Tartine's Soft Glazed Gingerbread Recipe - Food.com (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between hard and soft gingerbread? ›

Gingerbread is made harder by molasses and honey, but it becomes softer when water is absorbed by the sugar.

Gingerbread cookies should be soft. They should be supple. They should bend to your teeth before the cookie skin breaks and the crumbs fall all over you. They should retain a bit of elasticity, and maybe you can even leave your fingerprints on the cookie if you hold them too hard because you're just that excited.

Not using molasses.

Follow this tip: Use a combination of both molasses and dark brown sugar in your gingerbread cookie dough to ensure that they'll be crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.

Timing is the key to achieving the crispy edges and chewy centers of a perfect gingerbread cookie. Due to gingerbread's dark color, it can be tricky to tell when they're done baking—look for puffed up, just-set centers. Gingerbread cookies will collapse as they cool, delivering that chewy cookie texture.

How long does gingerbread last? Baked gingerbread will keep for 5 days in an airtight container. If it's humid or moisture is present, the gingerbread will soften. You can freeze gingerbread either raw or cooked.

Gingerbread Cookies are done when they are set and begin to brown slightly at the edges. They will harden further as they cool, so avoid overbaking so you don't end up with hard, crunchy gingerbread!

Chilling the dough makes the butter, and the dough firm up. Also, a very cold, even frozen crust will shrink less during baking. If you think about a stick of butter it makes sense: the cold butter keeps it's shape, When it softens, it spreads and no longer keeps it's shape.

“It shouldn't look flat or dry,” he said. “There are some gingerbread recipes that are hard right after baking and need to sit for a few days to soften. Molasses and honey hardens gingerbread, but as the sugar absorbs moisture, it will get softer.”

An excessive amount of butter makes it where the flour is unable to absorb the combined fat, which causes the cookie to spread too widely and the sugar to carbonize more easily because it's surrounded by too buttery a dough.

Over mixing the dough can lead to a tough textured cookie that doesn't hold its shape as well. Mix on low speed each time while slowly scraping down the sides of the bowl mixing just until everything is combined.

How do you moisten dry gingerbread? ›

The challenge was for me to find a perfectly moist and tender texture. I played with the liquid ingredients, milk and melted butter, and added freshly brewed coffee too. Use strong coffee and it will also enhance the deep flavors of the cake.

Extra sugar made this cookie way too hard.

As was expected because of the extra brown sugar, this cookie looked dark in color and took on the texture of molasses. I thought I was going to chip my tooth when I bit into this finished, extra-sugary cookie. It was hard and dense throughout.

Also, gingerbread like any other bread turns stale quite fast. Eating it after 1–2 week with tea shouldn't be a problem. The issue is rather that the bread after longer time would become so stale that you would have a hard time eating it.

This gingerbread will keep for a total of up to two weeks if stored in an airtight container in a cool place, though is at its very best within the first week. So adjust the "eat by" date according to when you made the gingerbread. We would suggest keeping the pieces of cut gingerbread as large as possible.

Gingerbread biscuits can be hard or soft, so if you want to make decorations, you'll need a recipe that will set hard and be very dry. The drier the biscuit is, the longer the icing will keep its original colour and stay hard. If the biscuits are soft, the icing will start to suck up moisture and colour over time.

Molasses and honey hardens gingerbread, but as the sugar absorbs moisture, it will get softer.” Cookbook author and ”Great American Baking Show” winner Vallery Lomas likes a gingerbread cookie that's packed with flavor. “I want to taste a lot of the spices ― especially ginger,” she said.

Dough should be soft (not dry or crumbly) but not sticky. If sticky, add a few tablespoons of flour until desired consistency is achieved. Remove 1/2 of dough from bowl, make a ball, and place on a large piece of plastic wrap on counter.