Traditional gingerbread cookie dough made Linzer Cookies style! Two gingerbread cookies sandwiched with strawberry jelly and a white chocolate ganache filled gingerbread man in the middle
With only a few days to go until Christmas, I wondered if it was worth creating another new Christmas cookie. But after the success of these reindeer cookies and cute checkerboard cookies, I thought let's do it! After all who says you can't make gingerbread cookies all year round?
These aren't your usual gingerbread cookies though, and hopefully I didn't upset any Linzer Cookies lovers by making the title what I did. I followed the same process as you would when making Linzer Cookies, those buttery cookies filled with jam in the middle. But instead of filling the shape on the surface with jam, I filled it with a sweet white chocolate ganache and I am not sorry!
Making These Easy Gingerbread Man Linzer Cookies
Usually gingerbread cookies are crispy but these are actually a little on the chewy side which I prefer, and they have a good amount of molasses so the flavor is perfect. There's a few tips to follow that will be helpful in making these cookies and by following the process you should end up with a batch of really good cookies, and the bonus part is having a bunch of tiny gingerbread men which are perfect for kids lunch boxes!
Important Ingredients You'll Need
- Ginger!
- Molasses
- Brown sugar
- Baking soda
The rest of the ingredients are everyday pantry items like flour, butter and eggs but these four are what makes gingerbread cookies what they are.
Making The Dough
Once the dough has been mixed it'll feel soft, actually far too soft to roll out and begin to cut out cookie shapes. It needs some time to relax and become more stiff. After wrapping it in plastic wrap, let it sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. The dough needs to resemble play dough before beginning to cut out the cookies.
Rolling Out The Dough
It's better to half the dough and roll it out in two parts or things might get sticky. Flour is your best friend at this stage so don't be shy about having some extra flour on hand to keep your work surface dry and prevent the dough from sticking to the table. Any flour that remains on your dough before baking will disappear during the baking process. Using a rolling pin to roll the dough out in a circular shape until it's roughly 1/4 inch thick. You'll need a 2 3/4 inch wide cookie cutter for the cookies. If you find that your cookies are stuck to the table after cutting them, you can lift them off easily using a flat cake slice or spatula.
To get the gingerbread man shape, you'll need a mini gingerbread man cookie cutter that will fit in the center of the 2 3/4 inch circular cookies you cut out and placed on the baking sheet. The first time I made these linzer cookies I cut the gingerbread man shape out before baking them. This didn't work because the dough began to spread a little and the shape of the gingerbread man became unrecognizable. I found that as soon as the cookies come out of the oven is the best time to cut out the gingerbread man shape.
It's important to remember that you'll only cut gingerbread men out of half of the baked cookies. The other half will remain as complete cookies as they'll be the base part.
Completing The Gingerbread Linzer Cookies
Once the cookies are cool you can sandwich them together with strawberry or raspberry jelly and then fill the gingerbread man shape with the white chocolate ganache.
