Best Ginger Cookies with Orange Clove Icing
The perfect soft ginger cookie with sweet orange clove icing. A new Christmas favorite!
Ingredients
Ingredients for the Cookies
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 3/4 cup organic fair trade sugar
- 2 Tbsp backstrap molasses
- 1 pastured egg
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 Tbsp ginger paste
- 1 3/4 cups Einkorn ancient grain flour (can sub regular all purpose flour)
- 2 tsp aluminum free baking powder
- 1/8 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Ingredients for the Icing*
- 2 cups organic powdered sugar
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 3 Tbsp milk
- 2 drops Sweet Orange essential oil or orange zest to taste
- few pinches ground cloves
- * This amount of icing makes enough to fully cover the cookies. If you're just drizzling you could probably reduce the amounts by half
Instructions
Instructions for the Cookies
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar, and molasses.
- Add eggs, vanilla, and ginger paste, and whisk to mix.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the remaining dry ingredients, then gently stir into the wet mixture until well incorporated.
- Using clean hands, roll dough into balls and place on parchment lined cookie sheets (12 balls per sheet).
- Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the surface is firm and just begins to crack. Cool completely before icing.
Instructions for the Icing
- Once cookies are completely cooled, transfer them to wax paper for icing. Dip the cookies upside down into the bowl of icing, or use a pastry brush to coat each cookie with a thin layer of icing (I prefer the brush).
- Try to use just enough icing to coat the cookie without too much extra collecting on the wax paper.
- Allow icing to harden completely before transferring to storage container.
Notes
- This recipe makes about 2 dozen standard size cookies or 4-5 dozen bite-size cookies.
- If you don't have orange essential oil you can use orange zest or a small squeeze of fresh orange juice
- The cookies will store well in an airtight container for up to 1 week and possibly longer without icing
- These cookies can be frozen without icing, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, foil, and store in an airtight container
- Keep the cookies in balls for a round and high cookies or flatten them slightly before baking for a flat shape
- The amount of icing is to completely cover the cookies if you'd rather just drizzle the icing over you can half the amount
- Make sure the cookies are completely cooled before icing