Gingerbread Cookie Bites
These mini Gingerbread Cookie Bites are one perfectly-poppable Christmas cookie treat! Great for gifting in a cute little bag, topping cupcakes or desserts, garnishing Christmas cocktails, or for just popping in your mouth as a smaller Christmas cookie treat.
I have to admit, classic gingerbread cookies are one of my absolute favorite Christmas treats. There's just something about that molasses-and-spice combination in a nice, soft cookie I adore.
Sitting down to some with a nice hot cup of tea or tall glass of cold milk is a treat to be treasured, for sure.
But when it comes to enjoying my favorite gingerbread cookies, there are also two other things I have to admit:
1. I don't like anything on them. No frosting or icing at all. To me, that just competes with their wonderful ginger-and-spice flavor. I much prefer to enjoy them completely naked.
and ...
For me, decorating cookies is simply an exercise in frustratingly glopping frosting in places I didn't intend for it to be, and being sadly disappointed in the result.
2. I hate decorating gingerbread cookies. Despise it, in fact.
I know some people just love the process of decorating cookies, finding it a relaxing and enjoyable creative outlet for all their frosting embellishment talents.
Me? Not so much.
For me, decorating cookies is simply an exercise in frustratingly glopping frosting in places I didn't intend for it to be, and being sadly disappointed in the result.
But with these adorable little mini Gingerbread Cookie Bites, I gave them a little touch of embellishment while simultaneously doing away with the decorating process and taste of frosting. Score!
Not to mention, these mini cookies are just plain cute.
A little sprinkling of white nonpareil sprinkles was my no-frosting decorating answer.
The sprinkles add just a little touch of decoration to make these mini cookie bites festive, without it being a fussy decorating process.
A little sprinkling of white nonpareil sprinkles was my no-frosting decorating answer.
And while the sprinkles do add a textural element to the finished cookies, there's no competition with the cookie's flavor at all.
{Note: You can certainly use red/white/green nonpareil sprinkles, as well. I just like the look of the the white ones best.}
First I tried cutting the cookies out, placing them on a baking sheet, and then sprinkling on the sprinkles. Result? ... The sprinkles just rolled right off.
Even when I pressed down a little bit with my hand, the sprinkles didn't stick well and it was easy to get a little bit of cookie shape distortion when pressing, too.
So then I tried sprinkling the sprinkles directly on top of the rolled out dough.
Great for gifting in a cute little bag, topping cupcakes or desserts, garnishing Christmas cocktails, or for just popping in your mouth as a smaller Christmas cookie treat.
Better ... but again, the sprinkles tended to just roll right off when putting the cut-out cookies on a baking sheet.
The final best approach?
Sprinkling the rolled out dough all over with sprinkles and then gently rolling once with a rolling pin to adhere the sprinkles to the dough before cutting out the cookies. This worked beautifully!
The one caution is that you need to be careful to not press the sprinkles too far down into the dough it's not a catastrophe if they get pressed in deeply ... they just don't look as cute once they're baked.
Or just pop them in your mouth as a smaller Christmas cookie treat.
However you choose to enjoy them, Gingerbread Cookies Bites' mini size makes them a perfectly adorable, perfectly-poppable little Christmas cookie treat.
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Yield: varies
Gingerbread Cookie Bites
These mini Gingerbread Cookie Bites are one perfectly-poppable Christmas cookie treat! Great for gifting in a cute little bag, topping cupcakes or desserts, garnishing Christmas cocktails, or for just popping in your mouth as a smaller Christmas cookie treat.
prep time: 1 H & 30 Mcook time: 10 Mtotal time: 1 H & 40 M
ingredients:
- 1/4 c. brown sugar
- generous 1/3 c. molasses
- 2 tsp. ground ginger
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 c. unsalted butter, cut into chunks
- 1 egg
- 2 ½ to 3 c. all-purpose flour
- white or red/green/white nonpareil sprinkles
instructions:
How to cook Gingerbread Cookie Bites
- Place butter chunks in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
- Put brown sugar, molasses, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves in a pan and heat to boiling point. Stir in baking soda. Take off heat and pour mixture over the butter in the mixing bowl.
- Stir until the butter has melted. Break egg into the mixture and stir to combine; then work in 2 ½ cups flour. Mix gently together until it becomes a smooth dough, adding up to ½ cup more flour if needed.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour.
- When chilled and stiffened slightly, roll out dough to desired thickness (I roll mine a bit thick ... probably about 1/4" thick. I like thick, soft cookies). Sprinkle dough all over with nonpareil sprinkles; gently roll once with rolling pin to adhere sprinkles to the dough, being careful to not press the sprinkles too far down into the dough. Cut out cookies with 1-inch gingerbread man cookie cutter or other mini cookie cutter shapes.
- Place cookies on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 325 degrees for 8-10 minutes.
TRACEY'S NOTES
- Place your brown sugar, molasses, and spices in a saucepan larger than you think you'll need. When you stir in the baking soda, the mixture foams up on you!
- The yield for this recipe really depends on the size of the cookie cutter you use - it's hard to estimate how many cookie bites the recipe can make.
You might also like these other fun Christmas treats:
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