Gingerbread Cookies – Perníčky
Gingerbread cookies are such a beautiful traditional symbol of Christmas. Back in the day when fancy ornaments were not as common, people would hang gingerbread cookies on their tree or around the house.
Tips:
- If you cannot find any particular spice listed above, just skip that spice.
- In the Czech Republic it is common to find a packet of pre-made gingerbread spice mix called “Kypřící prášek do perníku.” If you have one, use ½ tablespoon of it instead of the spices listed above.
- I have two grinders, one for coffee only and one for spices.
Makes: 50 – 80 cookies (depending on the size and thickness)
Prep: 30 minutes
Hands On & Bake: 1 hour 30 minutes
Bake: 250 °F (120 °C) about 14 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours plus time for frosting
Ingredients:
Dough
5 whole cloves or 1⁄8 teaspoon ground
1⁄2 stick of cinnamon or 1⁄2 teaspoon ground
1⁄4 teaspoon whole fennel seeds
1⁄4 teaspoon whole anise seeds
1 anise star
4 cups (560 g) all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1⁄2 tablespoon baking soda
3 eggs
1 1⁄4 cups (150 g) powdered sugar
1⁄3 cup (110 g) honey
1⁄2 stick (1⁄4 cup / 4 Tbsp / 55 g) unsalted butter, melted
Topping
1 small egg
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
Frosting
1 egg white (from large egg)
2 cups (240 g) powdered sugar
More egg white or water as needed
Directions:
Making the Gingerbread Dough
- Using a spice or coffee grinder, grind and combine 5 whole cloves, ½ stick of cinnamon, ¼ tsp fennel seeds, ¼ tsp anise seeds and 1 anise star. Set aside.
- Into a medium sized bowl add 4 cups all purpose flour, ½ Tbsp baking soda and spice mix. Mix well with a wooden spoon until everything is evenly mixed and set aside.
- Into a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, add 3 eggs and 1 ¼ cups powdered sugar and whisk until some bubbles form and all the sugar is evenly mixed.
- Add ⅓ cup honey, ½ stick melted unsalted butter and whisk it all together.
- Change stand mixer attachment from the whisk to a dough hook. Add the flour mix and mix starting on slow speed at first and gradually adding speed until a smooth dough is formed.
- Prepare two baking sheets lined with parchment paper. (You will want to use two so while one is in the oven you can work on the second one.)
- Preheat the oven to 250 °F.
- Sprinkle flour on a pastry board and cut off a piece of the dough. Start flattening the dough. Slide the dough a bit so it doesn’t stick to the board. Put more flour on the pastry board if it starts to stick to the board. Ideally you want to flatten it to about ⅛ of an inch (3 mm) thick. You can make them as thin or thick as you like. (The cookies will get bigger in the oven.)
- Cut out shapes and transfer to the baking sheet. Ideally you want the dough to be picked up as you pull up the cookie cutter. If the dough remains on the board, use the tip of a butter knife to pick up and transfer the cookie to the baking sheet. (Don’t space them too close to each other on the baking sheet since they will grow.)
- Bake for about 14 minutes or until golden brown. While the cookies are being baked, prepare the topping.
Preparing the Topping
- Into a small bowl put 1 egg and 1 tsp sifted unsweetened cocoa powder and whisk together slowly and carefully (because the cocoa will not want to initially mix with the egg.)
- Right after the baking sheet is pulled out of the oven, use a pastry brush to put the topping on the gingerbreads, spreading evenly. (It dries up pretty quick, so try to work fast.)
- Let them cool off completely.
Preparing the Frosting
- Into a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment add 1 large egg white and 2 cups sifted powdered sugar and mix very well. (Every egg is a different size so if the frosting turns out too thick, add more egg white or water as needed, or if too runny, add more sugar). The intended texture of the frosting is that it should be a little bit runny. If it is too thick, when it dries up it will fall off the cookie.
- You can also use food dye to create different color frosting if you wish. For each color that you want, scoop out some frosting and put it into a small bowl with a few drops of food coloring. Once mixed, put into a piping bag so it doesn’t dry up.
- Using a piping bag filled with frosting, pipe using tip number two. If you have frosting left in the bowl, cover it with plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry up.
- Decorate your gingerbread cookies as you like.
- Let the cookies dry completely and store in a closed container in a cold place.
(Metal tins in a refrigerator work well.)
Kristýnko, děkuji za recept na perníčky, brzy je upeču. Jen jsem se chtěla zeptat, při jaké teplotě se pečou? 250°F se mě zdá jako překlep? Díky za odpověď.
Zdravím z Kanady.
Ano pecu je na 250 Fahrenheita 14 min. Přeji ať se povedou. Moc zdravím do Kanady.
Kristyno,
na to icing mam dat normalni powdered sugar a nebo ten co si udelas s granulated sugar?
Dekuji,
Petra
Já používán klasicky z obchodu.
Tak musim rict, ze ja pecici antitalent jsem byla letos uspesna, diky Vasemu receptu. Pernicky se moc povedly, deti chodi a ujidaji. Zdobit budeme az zitra, dnes uz toho mam dost, ale musim Vam hned podekovat.
Misto medu jsem dala agave, jelikoz par znamych je alergickych a ja vetsinu cukrovi stejne rozdam. S testem se dobre pracovalo, no jsem nadsena :)
Dekuji !
Tak to je super! Mam radost ze se povedly a chutnají.
I have gingerbread mix..should I add other spices too?
That is most likely very different recipe. I would just follow directions on the box.
Hi, Kristýna.
I am confused…don’t gengibread cookies take ginger? I have seen some recipes with ginger powder… what’s the habit in Czech?
Love your channel.
XO,
Marília
Hi Marilia, in USA they do have a ginger in them. Czech ones don’t. I had to use this name gingerbreads since it is the closest to the Czech ones. :)
Děkuji, Kristýna. I’ll try your recipe then. ;)
I hope you enjoy it!
I wanted to bake your gingerbread cookies but I was confused about first spice entry – 5 whole cloves or 1/8 tsp ground. I assume this is ginger, but I have never heard of ginger coming in cloves. Also for a ginger recipe, 1/8 tsp of ginger sounds a bit light. As I am a novice baker could you please explain.
There is actually no ginger. The name is the closest to the ones here in USA. It is 5 whole cloves or 1/8 tsp ground cloves. Cloves is the name of spice.
Hello from Kanada, Westcoast. So happy that I found your website :)
I’m originally from Slovakia and I was just looking for some “medovnicky” recipe when I came across your website. I was only wondering if it’s ok to “to cut” the recipe in half, as I’m gonna bake various cookies and 50-80 cookies seems like a lot to me. I know it doesn’t always work, as baking is all about chemistry and it’s really hard to cut 3 eggs in half :) Maybe using 2 eggs would work?
You can definitely try to work with it. You might need to add little more flour if it is too sticky.
Are you sure the 250 deg F is accurate? I just baked them for 14 minutes and they don’t seem totally baked. Love your videos and website!
Thank you Every oven bakes differently. If they are not done add few more minutes. I baked them yesterday at my parents place in the Czech Republic and baked them for 16 minutes.
I make a similar cookie from my grandmother’s recipe. I found ground star anise at an Asian food store and it works great. I broke a grinder trying to grind the whole star anise. Thank you for sharing our heritage.
My pleasure. :) I usually buy anise stars whole bag on Amazon. Lasts for a while. :)
Krasny den, muzu se prosim Vas zeptat.. mam doma pernickove koreni. Kolik mam prosim Vas pridat lzicek, abych nahradila Vas umlety ‘spice mix?’
Predem dekuji a preji krasne Vanoce , Lucie
Děkuji Také preji krasne Vánoce. 1/2 Tbsp a vše kromě kořeni nechat stejně.
When I was with relatives in Vrchlabi they added a chocolate frosting dab in the center of the cookie and then placed a walnut from the backyard trees on top. Such a great flavor combination. Would this frosting be a dark Hershey type chocolate or a lighter Dutch chocolate? What chocolate is used in Frosting in Chechia? Thank you.
Just bought and received these cute cookie cutters here in Littleton,Colorado.
You can look up my Chocolate frosting recipe, but I think in this case they just melted dark chocolate over the steam with little shortening. Here in CZ we have what is called cooking chocolate. It is dark chocolate but not bitter. I found the one in Trader Joe’s called Belgium dark chocolate works great.
Ahoj a diky moc. Any changes for higher elevation? 5200 Feet/1584.96 meters
Hm I am not familiar with higher elevations, but since it isn’t dough that needs to rise before going into an oven, you should be ok. :)
Thank you for your recipe, I tried this year, it turns out amazing. I adapted it a bit. I add 20 g cocoa powder instead of the same amount of flour making the dough, and I didn’t brush egg or cocoa after baking. Not shining finish, but it is ginger bread color. And also the baking temperature doesn’t work for me. I use 150 C to bake 16- 18 minutes. Hope this change may help others if they have the same concerns with me. This year I bought the Czech cook cutters finally, including pig, mushroom, carp, horse shoe, and hedge hog, so glad I have them. Merry Christmas!!!