Gingerbread Cookies Without Honey: A Simple Step-by-Step Recipe

We begin preparing the gingerbread dough by making sugar syrup. To do this, combine 250 grams of sugar and 125 grams of water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly to dissolve the sugar.

When the sugar syrup is ready, turn off the heat, add a pinch of salt to the mixture, as well as spices to taste, and mix well (the mixture will foam).

Add 0.5 teaspoon of soda and stir the syrup again with a spatula until smooth.

Add 100 grams of softened butter (remove it from the refrigerator ahead of time) to the mixture. Stir with a spatula until the butter is completely melted.

Add 3 tablespoons of rye flour and 3 tablespoons of wheat flour (it's best to sift the flour first to remove lumps and incorporate air). Stir with a spatula until smooth, stirring the flour into the still-hot syrup.

Before adding the eggs, let the dough cool slightly. You can do this by whisking the mixture, as shown in the photo.

Add 2 egg yolks one by one to the dough and mix thoroughly until smooth.

Add the remaining rye flour according to the recipe and mix until smooth.

Add 1 egg (white + yolk) and mix it thoroughly into the dough.

Gradually add the remaining wheat flour according to the recipe and knead a tight elastic dough, first working with a spatula, and then with your hands.

Wrap the finished dough in a plastic bag or plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight to rest. If you're short on time, you can skip this step, but cookies made with rested dough will be more aromatic and flavorful.

If the dough has been in the refrigerator overnight, it should be taken out 1 hour before rolling out, so that the dough warms up and becomes more elastic.

Roll out the dough into a 4 mm thick crust and squeeze out beautiful cookies using cookie cutters or a special plunger for cutting out shaped items from dough.

Place the cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat and bake in the oven. 10-15 minutes at temperature 180℃Cooking time depends on the size and thickness of your cookies, as well as the individual characteristics of your oven.

To make the icing, take 2 egg whites. Lightly beat the whites with a fork and gradually add the powdered sugar, mixing thoroughly until smooth.

When mixing the glaze, you need to add a little lemon juice.

The resulting icing should look like this. To create a lacy design on the gingerbread cookies, the icing should be thick enough to hold its shape well, but if you plan to completely cover the surface of the cookies, you can use a thinner icing.