Spicy Gingerbread With Limoncello Icing
Fill your house with the scent of spicy gingerbread. It will waft out of the oven most enticingly as your biscuits bake. They smell pretty good once they’re out of the oven too. Enhanced with a little limoncello icing, they’re warming, chewy and delicious. Though you can use lemon juice instead. Eat just as they are, hang them up as festive decorations or pop into bags for gifts.
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Gingerbread is almost synonymous with Christmas and making some to hang on the tree is something I aspire to each year. This year, I’ve actually done it. Not that we have a tree to hang any on, but I’m hoping that the friends we are giving them to will.
Reading through a review copy of What to Bake & How to Bake It (affiliate link), I noticed a recipe for iced gingerbread cookies that used treacle as a variation. I find the word treacle very hard to resist – something to do with childhood memories of my mother’s treacle pudding, I imagine.
Decision made: I would knock up some gingerbread.
What To Bake & How To Bake It
What to Bake and How to Bake It by Jane Hornby (published by Phaidon Press at £19.95), is a rather beautiful book. It’s quite a large hardback and has a turquoise textured paper cover that makes me want to stroke it. Two matching turquoise bookmarks add distinction and there are plenty of gorgeous pictures to admire. It appears to be more a work of art than a manual. It’s certainly a book to treasure.
As the title suggests, this book is aimed principally at those who are new to baking or who require a confidence boost. Each recipe is spread over four to six pages, with lots of step-by-step aerial photography and accompanying instructions. Ah, so it is a manual, albeit a rather lovely one.
Methodologies, terms and equipment are covered at the beginning. But you’ll find plenty of tips and tricks throughout the book. Anyone working through a few of these recipes would learn pretty much everything they needed to turn out fabulous, cakes, breads, biscuits, pies and desserts.
Despite this, I think the book is also useful to the more experienced baker; most of us still have something to learn. Creating a Swiss roll is one of my bêtes noirs, so maybe I’ll be able to crack it with the steps shown here.
The Recipes
There are fifty recipes in total and although the classics are represented, there is plenty here to keep the more experienced baker interested and inspired. For example, you’ll find shortbread covered, but there’s also orange, lavender, pecan and chocolate versions.
I have my eye on the malted chocolate birthday cake as I’m a sucker for a Malteser. And if I hadn’t been ill in the run-up to Christmas, I would have made the pistachio and fig biscotti which sounds exotic and comforting in equal measure. Other bakes that might restore me to health include: blueberry-cinnamon crumb cake, cranberry stollen and Linzer cookies.
Spicy Gingerbread
I followed the recipe for iced gingerbread cookies almost exactly, adding only a little chocolate (of course) and a few additional spices. I reckoned it could do with a pinch of black pepper for extra warmth as well as some allspice for Vanesther’s Spice Trail and some nutmeg.
The biscuits smelt wonderful, both in and out of the oven and were as warming and delicious as I’d hoped. The touch of limoncello icing gave an added note of sophistication. They may not have looked very sophisticated, but I’m blaming the flu virus for that. CT and I quickly polished off all the rejects and I packed the rest into bags for gifts.
Other Spicy Ginger Recipes You Might Like
- Gingerbread chocolate truffles (vegan)
- Gingerbread hot chocolate (vegan)
- Grasmere ginger shortbread
- Homemade ginger chocolates
- Sticky banana ginger cake
- Sticky ginger apple cakes
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these spicy gingerbread cookies, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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If you’d like more Christmas recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.
Choclette x
Spicy Gingerbread. PIN IT.
Spicy Gingerbread with Limoncello or Lemon Icing
Ingredients
- 110 g salted butter
- 200 g dark brown sugar
- 2 tbsp treacle
- 25 g dark chocolate
- 1 large egg (I used a duck egg)
- 2 drop cinnamon extract or 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 drop black pepper extract or ½ tsp ground black pepper
- 1 drop nutmeg extract or ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- 150 g wholemeal flour (whole wheat)
- 200 g plain flour (all purpose flour)
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- 2 tsp ground ginger
Icing (optional)
- 6 tbsp icing sugar
- 1 tbsp limoncello or lemon juice
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large pan over a gently heat. Then add the sugar, treacle and chocolate. Stir until everything is well combined, then take off the heat and allow to cool a little.110 g salted butter, 200 g dark brown sugar, 2 tbsp treacle, 25 g dark chocolate
- Beat in the egg along with the spice drops, if using.1 large egg, 2 drop cinnamon extract, 1 drop black pepper extract, 1 drop nutmeg extract
- Sift in the flours, bicarbonate of soda and dry spices.150 g wholemeal flour (whole wheat), 200 g plain flour (all purpose flour), 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), 1 tsp ground allspice, 2 tsp ground ginger
- Mix together to form a soft dough. Cover the bowl and leave in a cool room or the fridge to firm up for an hour.
- Set the oven to 180℃ (160℃ fan, 350℉, Gas 4).
- Form the rested dough into a ball. Roll it out on a floured surface to about the thickness of a £1 coin.
- Using a cookie cutter, stamp out shapes from it, re-rolling the leftovers again and again until the dough is all used up.
- Place biscuits on lined baking trays and bake for 8-10 minutes depending on size. They should be lightly golden, but not dark. Small biscuits will need less time than larger ones.
- If the biscuits are destined for hanging, use a chopstick to make thread holes in the top as soon as the biscuits are out of the oven. Using a palette knife, transfer onto a wire rack to cool.
Icing (optional)
- Mix the icing sugar with just enough limoncello or lemon juice to make a thick, but pipeable icing.6 tbsp icing sugar, 1 tbsp limoncello
- Pipe this onto the biscuits in whatever way you like and leave them for an hour to dry.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Sharing
I’m sending these spiced biscuits off to Vanesther over at Bangers & Mash for The Spice Trail, which is allspice this month.
Some spicy gingerbread is also winging their way to Karen over at Lavender and Lovage who has appropriately chosen sugar and spice for this month’s Cooking with Herbs.
Giveaway
Phaidon Press has also kindly agreed to give one of my readers a copy of What to Bake & How to Bake It. To be in with a chance of winning, please fill in the Gleam widget below.
You will need to leave a comment on this post, answering the question, which then gives you additional chances to enter if you so wish. Gleam will pick a winner at random from the entries received. If you are commenting anonymously, please give me some way of identifying you as I will be verifying the validity of entries.
Any automated entries will be disqualified. This giveaway is only open to those with a UK postal address. Winners will need to respond within 7 days of being contacted. Failure to do this may result in another winner being picked.
Prizes are offered and provided by Phaidon Press and Chocolate Log Blog accepts no responsibility for the acts or defaults of said third party.
Closing date is Monday 19 January 2014
pavlovas – i can never get these right!
Profiteroles – usually it takes 3 attempts but I never know what I’ve done differently when it actually works! Third time lucky maybe! 🙂
baked cheesecake, the tin has always leaked no matter how much I wrap it in tinfoil!
i have trouble with scones they never seem 2 rise well
I can’t get carrot cake right, it’s always soggy in the middle but perfect at the edge, if I cooked it any longer, otside would be over cooked!
I can never seem to make a good Scone!
profiteroles, i used to make them all the time when i was younger and never seem to get them right anymore!
Def macaroons! Think i’m getting there now. So yummy so that made me keep going 🙂 @LyndaBrown5
Scones….just can’t seem to get them right!
My puff pastry never seems to puff!
For some reason I’m not very good with scones lol I think I over handle them
Millionaires shortbread , I have tried so many times but for some reason I can’t get the base right.
meringue! I used to be able to bake one to perfection but it fails every single time despite using all the tricks in the book!!
gluten free bread….could only be used as a door stop it was as heavy and dense as a brick;)
I’ve given up on macaroons … just can’t get them right !
My swiss rolls always taste delicious but best not to look at them, not a pretty sight
anything with puff pastry, it never puffs for me.
Macaroons have destroyed me every time I have tried
Scones! Other things,no problems. Think I’ll have to give them up as a bad job 🙁
swiss roll, would love to get the ‘roll’right without cracking
I find the rolling of Swiss rolls or any meringue roulade very tricky
Birthday cakes, they never seem to cook through right.
Our new year’s resolution was to try do more cooking & baking. Results have been good so far, this book would help enormously 🙂
i find making savoury muffins hard as never can get the flavours quite right.
cheesecake. I just can seem to get it no set right. baked or non baked
2 b honest i havn’t done much baking but part of my new year resolution is 2 start doing more
I have never been able to make good shortbread
I struggle to make Victoria sponges that rise much!
My chocolate brownies are always hit and miss but still get eaten so may be not so bad!
I’d like to make a nice firm lemon meringue pie
Lemon tart…It just doesn’t get the right consistency
Macarons – would love to master the art of making them!
Anything with caramel. I just can’t for the life of me cook caramel arghh!
Getting a good result with a cake mix that is boiled before baking
i always manage tyo over cook my cupcakes the simplest thing to bake i can do other stuff fine tho
Struggling with the ever so simple cookie! Can do chou pastry – but a chocolate cookie will either be raw or will break your teeth :s
Biscuits, they are either extremely thin & crispy or ‘cakey’ cant seem to get the consistency right, no matter what type I try to make.
Surprisingly, cupcakes. The tops are always really pointy and the fan in my oven is so fierce they go all lopsided. So I end up with wonky volcanoes.
My Christmas cakes always seem to wet in the middle. This year I got it right finally 🙂
I cook a lot of wheat/gluten free but this works much better with certain bakes/recipes than others and can be tricky.
Cinnamon buns they went all hard and the cinnamon was clunky
I once tried to make a croquembouche. What was I thinking?
bread, I can knead it forever and it comes out of the oven looking fabulous but loaves are always like bricks & rolls are like rocks
I’m not sure if this counts, but Scottish Tablet!
Biscuits, they always end up running together and burning around the edges
Chocolate truffles-it’s hard to get the temperatures right
My brownies seem to always stick to the bottom of tray
My swiss roll never goes the same twice and has a tendency to be uneven in thickness
What bake have you found tricky to master?………….baked Alaska
Panacotta it would not set.
Just a vanilla milkshake after a nugjt in the fridge.
I think I’ve tried all the tricks suggested over time but still find rolling a swiss roll the most challenging of tasks and it looks so simple when it is done properly.
I struggle with gingerbread, I can never get that nice snap to it
I just can’t do Yorkshire Puddings – maybe it’s because I only live in Yorkshire and I wasn’t born there! 🙂
Perfect, I’m just getting into baking and could really use this for ideas
Swiss roll, it always cracks… tastes good though
Macaroons as it’s tricky to get the egg whites just right
Swiss rolls, never managed to make a successful one 🙁
@oneisjamie
my scones seem to not want to rise and look more like rock cakes
Swiss roll – I can’t get it to roll up.
I burn cookies! I wanna learnnnn!
would love to make a decent swiss roll
I seem to be prone to overcooking muffins :S
Chocolate brownies, I just cant get that lovely gooey consistancy
Yorkshire puddings,O and Ive tried so many times
Try equal amounts of milk and plain flour, an egg and seasoning and blitz in a liquidizer. Best left to stand. Then make sure it’s poured into a reasonable amount of sizzling hot fat that has coated the tin and cook on 200 for half hour or so
Thanks so much for sharing your delicious gingerbread in December’s Spice Trail challenge. I absolutely adore gingerbread made with treacle. And isn’t What to Bake such a beautiful book – definitely one of my favourite cookbooks of 2014. Here’s to a very delicious 2015!
biscuits never seem to get them quick enough before turning
For me it was pancakes. Such a simple thing but while I was happy making much more complicated things, it took me ages to get them right.
Loving the gingerbread and think I would rather enjoy the book too Choclette.
Beautiful biscuits. I can only imagine the fab smell in your house when you baked them!
Lemon drizzle. I always get the sugar/water ratio wrong and just end up with a soggy rather than a crunchy cake!
Not exactly a problem but when I used to make flapjacks the oats would expand and overflow to make big fat flapjacks but these days they’re more like chewy biscuits
I particularly like the sound of ‘spicy’ gingerbread – will have to have a go at these over Christmas!
anything in a bundt tin! (always have a nightmare removing it!!!)
My Sacher Torte was a disaster, but I will try again sometime! Love the addition of Limoncello icing. I love Limoncello!!!
I love a dark and spicy gingerbread – these look great
Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year
These look gorgeous and would make super presents.
As silly as it sounds, I always struggle with flapjack! It always turns into granola. I bake all the time, and never have issues with other recipes. I can’t work out what I’m doing wrong!
I love the idea of limonchello icing – should work really well with the gingerbread!
They are so festive and pretty!
Happy Holidays!
I love lemon with gingerbread – it’s a fab flavour combination. Great recipe & your gingerbread men look scrumptious! Have a wonderful Christmas. x
Definitely macarons were tricky for me – a lot of practice and a masterclass!
The spicy gingerbread sounds wonderful! I’d love to try it 🙂
A chocolate tart! I’ve tried it a few times and it just never sets enough to slice it
I don’t attempt anything that seems difficult so I’m all good 😉 Limoncello icing sounds brilliant though!
Chocolate Fudge Log, would love to be able to get one of those right! xxx