Decorated Nutcracker Cookies
I couldn’t resist; a few weeks ago I put up a Christmas tree (yes, I know, ahem, a few weeks ago), with some of these nutcracker ornaments.
This little guy got me thinking about nutcracker cookies.
Or cookie I should say. I only ended up making the one… He took a little longer than usual to finish. This pic shows the beginning stages of decoration.
Since I’m not very skilled at drawing (or adept at chosing the right side of the cookie apparently), I used an image of Christmas stickers with my KopyKake projector. First piped the dark outlines, then flooded the first layer. After that dried I added more layers of detail.
I’m thinking I’d like to try another one with him {below} as the inspiration:
Gingerbread has never been my favorite cookie, but I do like the taste of the recipe I use from my sister-in-law. It had a bit of a ‘bite’ to it originally (spicy), so I’ve changed it a bit over the years to make it a little more neutral. (Especially for kids!) If you like a bit more of a ‘kick’, add one teaspoon more of the ginger, cinammon and cloves and one teaspoon of pepper.
It’s a great recipe for gingerbread houses as well. If you’d like to try it out, check out the recipe below.
For the royal icing recipe, click here.
For a video on how I made the dough click here.
*Happy baking!
xo,
Marian
Gingerbread Cut Out Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 800 g all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder *omit if you don't want cookies to spread/rise
- 250 g unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup molasses
- 3 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix butter and brown sugar on medium speed until fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and spatula as needed.
- Mix in eggs, one at a time, and then molasses. Reduce speed to low. Scrape down bowl as needed.
- Sift together flour, spices and salt and add to bowl; mix on low until just combined. Note that you would sift in the baking powder here as well, if you aren't concerned about the cookies spreading. Even environment and ingredients used affect baking, so if your dough is a bit sticky add flour until it's soft to the touch but doesn't stick to your fingers.
- Roll dough out between parchment or the Dough E-Z mat, and let it rest by refrigerating until cold, about 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut out cookie shapes and place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper, approximately 2 inches apart, and re-roll out dough and cut shapes as needed. Refrigerate until firm; at least 15 minutes to 1 hour.
- Bake cookies until lightly golden; 10 to 14 minutes, depending on the size and thickness of the cookie. Let cool on sheets on wire racks and serve as is or decorate with royal icing.
Tania says
@ marian:
Ms. Marian
Does it alter the taste of the icing? I found that when I used a lot of the americolor Christmas Red, it tasted a little off.
marian says
Tania, Yes, I does taste a little off to me too. =(
Laurel says
I use LOTS of Wilton Red (No Taste). There’s no taste at all and I get a REALLY bright red.
paula stebbins says
Could you please tell me where you got your nutcracker cookie cutter? I haven’t been able to find this one. Thank you. Paula
[email protected]
marian says
HI Paula, I found an image of a nutcracker on the net, used it to cut a template out for the nutcracker and then used a pizza wheel and sharp knife to manually cut him out. It was a lot slower than a cookie cutter! lol.
Camille says
I just came across your website and am looking forward to trying this recipe. I have stayed away from any cookie that uses a cookie cutter to cut out. Too time consuming. Hearing about freezing is a new concept to me.
How long would you bake the cookies frozen dough and at what temp?
Thanks!
Marian (Sweetopia) says
@ Camille: There’s a post dedicated to freezing cookies; if you’d like to check it out it’s under tutorials and is called, ‘Freezing Decorated Cookies’. You’ll find much more detail there than I could provide in my answer here. =)
Mary-Clare says
Hi Marion…. Have you considered making a haunted gingerbread house? I would love to see what your designed would be. I make them every year and host a haunted house making party with friends…. they are so cute and get excited about what candy they can collect! Here’s a pic of mine that was posted by someone: http://www.gingerbread-house-heaven.com/haunted-mansion.html
Hope to see one soon! Your work is so inspirational! How do you stay so slim with all that sugar around?
marian says
@ Mary-Clare: So gorgeous! A genuine work of art. I could never eat that house. 😉
I have made a halloween gingerbread house, but it was just the front (a facade); a project from Teresa Layman’s book.
It’s in the gingerbread category if you’d like to see it. Yours was def. more detailed!
Thanks for the compliments… her hee. It’s an on-going thing… but lately I’ve been trying to give everything away and jog more. lol
Jilly_Bean says
How much cups of butter and flour? I tried searching for the conversion for grams to cups I am finding different answers on different sites.
I love, love, love your site! You inspired me to start making my own decorated cookies – and it’s official – I sold my cookies to a local market today! Thanks for the inspiration (and motivation). Jill
Melody says
How much flour and butter? Do not have a scale.
Thanks,Mel
Which copy kake do you like?
marian says
@ Melody: I”ll have to measure with cups the next time I make it, sorry I don’t have your answer now. Google will have conversions for you.
Check out my kopykake tutorial in the tutorial section; i compare the models at the bottom of the tutorial
xo
Kristen says
@ Jilly_Bean:
Is this Jilly Bean from Lynnfield by any chance??
Erica says
I know it depends on the size of the cookie… but lets say its a 3 inch circle, how many cookies would you get out of this recipe?
I teach a baking class to little girls and would like to make ginger bread houses with them so I need to figure out how many batches of this dough I need to crank out!
marian says
@ Erica: Oh, sounds like fun! I’m in the same boat as you Erica, I would need to actually make the recipe once and see how many 3 inch circles it makes, and then do my calculations.
Nadine says
Hi Marian,
Your nutcracker gingerbread is beyond gorgeous. I seriously don’t know how you do what you do. I just have one quick question about the recipe itself: I read in one of your posts that you don’t use baking powder anymore in your sugar cookie recipe. Do you also omit it from your gingerbread recipe? Thanks in advance for your help!
marian says
@ Nadine: Sweet thanks for your kind comments! I DO omit it from my gingerbread now too. I kind of slowly morphed to doing that… just makes things easier in terms of getting the shapes I want.
Have fun decorating Nadine!
Nadine says
You’re the best, Marian. Thanks!
Erica says
@ Jilly_Bean and Melody, I just made the gingerbread dough. I still don’t know how many the batch makes because it is still parked in my fridge, but I weighed AND measured out the flour as I went along and it was just under 6 cups of sifted A.P. flour. The butter is 2 sticks and 1 TBS. It makes a pretty decent size amount of dough for which I am grateful! 🙂 Thanks again Marion.
marian says
@ Erica: Thanks so much! I will direct people to your comment when they ask. xo
Conny says
What are molasses? The only things I can find in the UK shops are Natural Molasses Sugar or Treacle. Also do you have the metric weight for the molasses?
marian says
@ Conny: That’s right! Treacle is molasses (just another name).
Sorry, I don’t have the metric weight for the treacle.
Conny says
Is this dough quite moist or easy to roll and cut?
marian says
@ Conny: This one is not as moist as my sugar cookie recipe, so is easier to roll and cut. I do roll mine between sheets of parchment and chill before cutting. Happy baking and please don’t hesitate to visit if you have any more questions!
Paula says
Hello, I’m from Chile and I congratulate you for the wonderful art you do! My question is this …. I can replace the molasses with honey bee?.
Greetings from Chile
Merry Christmas
Conny says
marian wrote:
Thanks. I have attempted these tonight using a conversion from cup to grams for treacle, but my cookies are quite a bit darker looking than yours, so maybe I have used a bit too much. Is there any chance at all you could measure the treacle next time you make this recipe if you have some scales?
Marian (Sweetopia) says
@ Conny:
Will do.
Another factor is the brown sugar. Try a lighter brown sugar next time.
Lexy says
I too cannot find the answers for conversions I’m in bc Canada and we use the ounces and cups more so than the grams and such must be a west coast thing lol
lexy says
so what I ended up doing was converting grams to ounces and than ounces to ml because that’s what my butter is in and its all weight to weight as apposed to weight to volume. One cup of butter weighs 8 ounces 250grams is 8.8 ounces and 260.54 ml on my butter it says 250 ml is one cup so im going with that lol so to break it down i did grams to ounces to ml
lexy says
than i realised i was crazy for even going to ounces first haha and went straight from grams to ml 😛
lexy says
scratch that i know why i did that holy sorry for the spam lol
Arrie says
Can you please convert recipe from metric to english? I am totally in love with your website!
marian says
@ Arrie: Ha ha! The next time I make it I’ll use cups etc. and write it down.
Kathryn says
This looks great! I have a batch in the fridge right now waiting to be made into gingerbread houses. For those needing conversions:
-the flour is ABOUT 6 cups, I would go with 5 1/2 and if you need more at the end you can add it.
-the butter is (as mentioned above) 2 sticks and 1Tbsp.
-I had no molasses, and substituted 3/4 cup brown sugar for the molasses.
-I also had no cloves, and substituted allspice for the cloves.
So far, the dough tastes AWESOME, and I don’t usually Luke gingerbread dough! I will post more info after I’ve got mine cut out and baked, I’m excited!
Marian (Sweetopia) says
Thanks @ Kathryn! I’ve been meaning to do that for so long, but always forget!
Merry Christmas to you!
Laurel says
800 grams is equal to 1 lb 12.22 oz. WEIGHED. 250 grams is equal to 8.86 ounces WEIGHED.
Jessica says
@ Kathryn: You may like the dough because it doesn’t have the molasses! That is what makes the distinct flavor, I have to know, did it hold together well?
Jessica says
@ Paula: You asked about the Molasses, if it’s because you can’t find it in Chile it’s probably called melaza there. Also, you may have brown sugar but when we lived in Peru they had something called “azúcar morena” but it wasn’t the same as what is considered brown sugar in the states. It’s what we call “sugar in the raw” here. To make brown sugar you mix azúcar and melaza and that makes the equivalent to what we have in the states. If you already knew that great! I just remember not having brown sugar available and having to learn to make my own.