Gingerbread honey shortbread cookies
If you are looking for delicious and soft gingerbread cookies, look no further. These gingerbread honey shortbread cookies are soft and utterly delicious. They are made with real honey and homemade gingerbread spice. Dough is very easy to work with and perfect to make with kids. These eggless cookies are perfect for decorating.
How to make gingerbread honey shortbread cookies
Everybody is saying that making a good shortbread is easy. I disagree with this statement. Making a good shortbread may seem easy but actually it requires certain knowledge and understanding of ingredients.
Many recipes are saying just mix butter with sugar and then add flour and bake. Well, please read the below tips. They will help you to avoid all the issues while making a great shortbread.
TIPS:
- BUTTER: In order to make the best shortbread you need to use the best butter. Not margarine, or any other butter substitute. Real butter at its best. I used salted butter in this recipe. If you can not find salted butter, you can use unsalted but add 1/4 tsp of table salt. The buttery indulgent taste comes from real butter, this is it.
- SUGAR: Traditional Scottish shortbread is made with standard white granulated sugar. In this recipe, I have replaced sugar and used honey instead. Honey makes these cookies soft and allows them to stay fresh for longer. Honey also adds lots of flavour and makes these cookies irresistible. If you can use real honey, it tastes much better than artificial.
- FLOUR: As simple as it may be in order to make a good shortbread, you need to use a soft flour. If you did not know flour can be soft, hard or medium.
- Hard flour has a high protein content and has a good ability to form gluten. It is perfect to make bread.
- Soft flour has a low protein content and lower ability to create strong gluten. This flour is also called pastry flour or cake flour. It makes baked goods more flaky than doughy. For any shortbread recipe soft flour is the best option.
- Medium flour, also called AP flour – it is a mix of soft and hard flour and is the most commonly available in supermarkets.
Fort his recipe, apart from the 3 ingredients above I have also used :
4. GINGERBREAD SPICE: I make my own gingerbread spice as it saves time and money. I always make a quadruple batch and store it in a jar. It comes in handy during the gingerbread season. I also love the fact that it can be easily customised. I encourage you to try and make your own batch of homemade gingerbread spice.
HANDLING THE DOUGH – Melt butter and honey and mix together. Do not boil. Just heat them up enough so they melt. Let the mixture cool down completely. Then add flour and gingerbread spice and rub all ingredients with your fingers until just combined. The whole secret is not to overwork the dough. Overworked dough means cakey and tough shortbread due to formation of gluten. We do not want it.
THICKESS AND SHAPING: Dough is very easy to work with and to roll. It makes perfect cut out shortbread cookies to make with kids. My cookies very about 0.6cm thick.
What do gingerbread honey shortbread cookies taste like?
These golden beauties taste beautiful. A subtle flavour that comes from real honey plays wonderfully with aromatic flavours from homemade gingerbread spice. The texture is soft but sturdy. These cute cookies can be decorated with icing, royal icing, buttercream, chocolate ganache, you name it.
How to store gingerbread honey shortbread cookies
Store shortbread at room temperature in a cookie jar or a cookie tin. You can also freeze it for up to 6 months. In order to defrost shortbread, just take it out of the freezer and leave it at room temperature for an hour. It defrosts like a charm.
If you are looking for more shortbread recipes, I can recommend you the following:
Coffee and chocolate chunks shortbread
Chocolate and chili shortbread
Click this link to see the best shortbread recipes
I hope you will make my recipe and if you do, please leave a comment below and let me know your feedback. You can also find me on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Gab and Gettr. Please say hi and do not forget to tag me in if you make my recipe. I love seeing your creations.
Recipe source – my own
Enjoy!
These cut out cookies are loaded with Christmassy flavours of honey and gingerbread spice. They are soft and addictive. Perfect for decorating.
- 200 g butter (salted, room temperature)
- 200 g honey (real if possible)
- 350 g flour (cake flour or AP flour, plus extra if needed to flour the working surface)
- 20 g gingerbread spice (from this recipe https://kitchenbyannak.com/recipe/homemade-gingerbread-spice/)
Please read the post above. It includes tips and useful information.
Prepare 2 large baking trays lined with baking paper, set aside.
Prepare working surface, rolling pin and cookie cutters.
In a medium pot melt butter and honey, mix and let it cool down completely.
Mix flour with gingerbread spice and add it to the honey and butter mixture.
Using your hands, rub everything together until dough forms. The consistency should be like a playdough. Do not knead or overwork the dough as cookies will become doughy and chewy and this is not want we want.
Preheat your oven to 175C (347F).
Sprinkle a little bit of flour. Cut the dough into 4 portions and roll each portion 0.6 cm thick. Cut out cookies. Repeat the process with the remaining dough.
Place cookies on the prepared baking trays and bake them for 10 minutes.
Let cookies cool completely before decorating.