Gingerbread Cookie Bars

These gingerbread cookie bars are an easy way to enjoy delicious gingerbread cookies without all the faff of rolling and cutting. Decorate with royal icing to finish. 

When my girls were younger, seasonal Christmas baking always included sugar cookies of various colors and designs and gingerbread men with royal icing features and M&M baking bit buttons. 

We loved baking and decorating them almost as much as eating our creations. Also, fancy cookies make great gifts for friends and neighbors. Who doesn’t like to get a small plate of festive Christmas cookies?

I must confess that I’ve gotten lazy now though. I rarely make any cookies that require rolling out and cutting, then re-rolling the scraps and cutting again. Even when I make sugar cookies, I make a sausage out of the dough so I can just slice and bake. 

The dough for these gingerbread cookie bars isn’t stiff enough to do that though, so I just bake them and cut them apart. Still so easy! 

Gingerbread Cookie Bars

For the molasses, use unsulphured, as in the ingredient list, NOT black strap which is very strongly flavored and will overwhelm the spices. I use Grandma’s brand. This recipe was adapted from one on Sally’s Baking Addiction. The royal icing ingredients make way more than you need to decorate these cookie bars but the balance can be kept indefinitely in the freezer.

Ingredients for 24 cookie bars

For the cookie bars:

2 1/4 cups or 281g flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup or 170g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1/2 cup, packed, or 100g dark brown sugar

1/2 cup or 100g sugar

1/3 cup or 80ml (113g) unsulphured molasses

1 large egg, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the royal icing:

1 1/4 cups or 156g powdered sugar 

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

pinch fine sea salt

1 large egg white (about 40g)

Important: Uncooked egg whites should not be served to anyone with a compromised immune system, unless those whites are from pasteurized eggs. Substitute an equivalent combination of powdered egg whites and water, according to the package instructions.

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare a 9x13 in or 23x33cm pan by lining it with baking parchment. I dab a little butter or oil in each corner and in the middle to help anchor the paper to the pan. This keeps it from sliding around as much. 

In a large mixing bowl, whisk to combine the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg and salt. 

In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, sugar, egg, molasses and vanilla together until no lumps remain. 

Sift the flour mixture into the butter mixture folding as you go. 

Spoon the dough to the prepared baking pan. 

Use a spatula to spread and press it into a smooth, even layer. 

Bake for 23–26 minutes or until the top is set but still looks quite soft. There shouldn’t be any jiggle but do err on the side of under-baking. The bars puff up in the oven, but will deflate and firm up as they cool. 

Leave to cool on a wire rack in the pan for about 10 minutes then using side of the baking parchment, slide the baking parchment with bars on top from the baking pan to the wire rack.

Leave to cool for another 10-15 minutes, then slide the baking parchment with bars to a cutting board and cut into squares.

Gently separate the squares and leave to cool. 

Meanwhile, make the royal icing. Sift the powdered sugar, cream of tartar and pinch of salt into a mixing bowl. Add in the egg white.

 Whisk it in a little at a time from the middle, until all is incorporated.

When the cookie bars are completely cool, spoon some of the icing into your piping bag fitted with a #3 tip. 

Decorate as desired, letting some drip off the sides of the gingerbread bars. I like to do diagonal lines across the top. If you don’t have a piping bag and tip, use a Ziploc bag with a tiny corner cut off. 

Leave to set. 

The royal icing will harden up then the bars can be stored in an airtight container or packaged up to share with friends and family. 

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing recipes on our holiday cookie platters in celebration of National Cookie Exchange Day which falls next Monday, 22 December. Many thanks to our host, Camilla of Culinary Cam. Check out the links below. 

• A Panoply of Pistachio Cookies by Culinary Cam
• Bakery-Style Holiday Sprinkle Cookies by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Citrusy Ginger Shortbread Cookies by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Egg Free Peanut Butter M&M Cookies by Mayuri's Jikoni
• Eggless Piped Chocolate Cookie by Sneha's Recipe
• Fruitcake Cookies by Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Gingerbread Cookie Bars by Food Lust People Love
• Vegan Ginger Cookies by Sid's Sea Palm Cooking

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

Pin these Gingerbread Cookie Bars!

.

Oaty Honey Cookies

Sweet and crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside, these golden oaty honey cookies are perfect with a cup of tea or coffee at breakfast or snack time. 

Our younger daughter arrived for a visit last week and when we picked her up at the airport, she raved about the oat cookies she was give on board the last flight. 

Her chief reason for liking them was that, while they had tasty oats, they didn’t have any “bits” because the oats seemed finely ground. These oaty honey cookies were my attempt to recreate those, but with nicer ingredients. I looked up Walker’s Crumbly Golden Oat Biscuits (British brand!) and noted that they contained canola and palm oil, golden syrup, sugar and flour. 

I switched out the oils for butter, syrup for honey and used brown sugar and whole wheat flour instead of white. Did these cookies taste like the Walker’s ones? They did not. Were they delicious? Absolutely. And I am grateful for the inspiration.

Oaty Honey Cookies

This recipe makes about 20-22 cookies, depending on the size you make them. The dough will spread out so chilling it first and leaving enough space between them in the pan is crucial. I recommend chilling the dough for at least 30 minutes.

Ingredients

2/3 cup or 50g porridge oats 

1 cup or 120g whole wheat flour 

2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/4 cup or 57g butter, melted and cooled

1/4 cup or 60ml honey

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Method

Measure your oats then use a small food processor to turn them into flour. 

In a large bowl, combine the oats, flour, baking powder, and salt. 

In a smaller dish, whisk together the butter, honey, milk and vanilla.

Add the honey mixture to the dry ingredients and stir to incorporate. 

Chill, covered with cling film, for 30 minutes in the refrigerator. 

When the chilling time is coming to a close, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare a baking pan by lining it with baking parchment or a silicone mat. 

Separate the cookie dough into even pieces. (I’m anal like that so I weighed my dough and each ball was 17g.) Roll them into a ball with damp hands. Press gently onto the baking parchment or silicone.

 

Repeat until all of the dough is used, leaving 6cm (2 inches) between each cookie to allow for spreading.

Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until golden. Remove the pan from the oven and let the cookies cool on the pan for 10 minutes.

 Carefully lifting them off with a spatula and let them cool fully on a rack. 

Brew yourself a cup of tea and enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and, since it’s September, we are celebrating National Honey Month by sharing recipes with honey. Many thanks to our host, Camilla from Culinary Cam. Check out the links below. 

• Baked Brie With Honey by Mayuri's Jikoni
• Honey Almond Milk Iced Latte by Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Oaty Honey Cookies by Food Lust People Love
• Peach Bruschetta with Hot Honey by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Smashed Figs with Sesame and Honey by Culinary Cam
• Winter Bahar by Sneha's Recipe

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

Pin these Oaty Honey Cookies!

.

Banana Peanut Butter Cookies

Simple to make, chewy and delicious, these banana peanut butter cookies are perfect with a glass of cold milk or a cup of hot tea. They'd be great for breakfast too! 

I give the actual recipe I used for the cookies in my photos but I have made these many times. What I discovered is that no banana is exactly the same weight you need. 

Based on the original ingredients for one batch of 16, here are the instructions to personalize the recipe according to the weight of your bananas. You need a kitchen scale. 

Simply peel your very ripe bananas and weigh them in grams. Divide the number of grams by 75. Now times that result by 160. That is how many grams of peanut butter you need for your weight of bananas. Times that banana number by 31 to figure out how much flour you need. Easy! 

Banana Peanut Butter Cookies

I tried this recipe with natural peanut butter without sugar and even with a very ripe banana, the cookies just weren’t sweet enough. Use your favorite peanut butter that does have sugar added. I like Jif.

Ingredients for 16 cookies

1/3 cup or 75g very ripe banana

1/2 cup, rounded, or 160g smooth peanut butter (with sugar)

1/4 cup or 31g flour

Powdered sugar for pressing with fork

Sugar for sprinkling, if desired.

Method

Preheat your oven to 350° or 180°C and line a baking pan with a silicone liner or baking parchment. 

In a mixing bowl, whisk the ripe banana until smooth. 

Add in the peanut butter and flour and mix thoroughly. 

Use tablespoon to apportion into cookies. 

Roll into balls.

Dip the tines of your fork into powdered sugar and press down in a cross pattern. 

Sprinkle with more sugar for decoration, if desired.

Bake in your preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. 

Remove the cookies from the oven and leave to cool. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before storing in an airtight container. 

Enjoy!

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are celebrating National Tea Day. Many thanks to our host, Camilla of Culinary Cam who encouraged us to share our favorite recipes that use tea as an ingredient or anything you would serve at a tea party. Check out the links below. 

• Banana Peanut Butter Cookies by Food Lust People Love
• Caramel Apple Tea Rub for Pork by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Chamomile Spring Veggie Chowder by Culinary Cam
• Veggie Mini Vol-au-Vents by Sneha's Recipe

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

Pin these Banana Peanut Butter Cookies!

.

Candy Cane Meringue Kisses

These peppermint candy cane meringue kisses are the perfect little melt-in-your-mouth treat for after dinner. They are small so you can’t eat just one.

My mom had only one brand of candy cane that she’d buy; they had to be Bobs. As a self-professed candy cane connoisseur, she said they were the best because they were made with all-natural peppermint and, while I never did a taste test, I trusted her judgement. After all, she had grown up with Bobs.

Bobs Candies – no apostrophe because it is plural not possessive – was a family business which was started back in 1919 by Bob MacCormack and Bob Mills. Innovations included the Keller machine, invented by McCormack’s brother-in-law, Father Harding Keller, which perfected the twisting and cutting of candy canes, giving them their signature spiral stripes.

According to the Georgia encyclopedia, the company also began wrapping their candy canes in cellophane, making them the first candy maker to do so. This simple but effective move helped preserve freshness and appeal to a growing market. 

Growing up, we always had a box or two of Bobs candy canes, shrink wrapped in cellophane to eat/hang on the tree, so I made sure to continue the tradition in my own family. 

What this means though is that at the end of the holidays, when the tree comes down, there are always a few candy canes that missed getting eaten. These candy cane meringue kisses make perfect use of them! (Here's a tip: Homemade kisses are a perfect Valentine's Day gift.)

Candy Cane Meringue Kisses

This recipe makes about 6 dozen bite-sized kisses or about 4 dozen larger ones. You can drop the mixture by small spoonsful on to the baking pans but if you have a piping bag, the process is much neater. If you are making the bite-sized ones, like I did, you will need to bake them in two batches. 

Ingredients

3/4 cup or 150g granulated sugar

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon salt

4 large egg whites

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/3 cup or 50g crushed candy canes, plus extra for decorating

Method

Preheat your oven to 225°F or 107°C. Adjust two racks so that they are in the upper-middle and lower-middle position.

Line 2 baking pans with baking parchment or silicone liners and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the sugar, cornstarch, and salt, and whisk to combine.

Whip the egg whites and cream of tartar together with an electric mixer on medium-low speed, until the mixture is foamy, about 1 minute.

Increase the mixer speed to medium-high, and whip until the whites are soft and fluffy.

Gradually, add the sugar mixture while the mixer is running, and whip until the whites are glossy and form stiff peaks, 1 to 3 minutes.

Gentle fold in the 1/3 cup crushed candy canes.

Use a spoon or a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip to make 1 1/4 in or 3 cm wide meringue kisses on the prepared baking sheets, spaced about an inch or 2cm apart.

Sprinkle with more crushed candy canes.

Bake the meringue kisses for 1 hour. Turn off the oven, and let the meringues sit in the oven for an additional 1 hour (or 2 hours, if in humid or rainy conditions). 

Remove the kisses from the oven, and let them cool before serving, about 10 minutes.

Keep meringues crispy by storing extras in an airtight container, especially if you live in a humid area. 

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing peppermint recipes. Check out all the links below! 

• Candy Cane Meringue Kisses from Food Lust People Love
• Chocolate Peppermint and Chocolate Chip Cookies from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Chocolate Peppermint Thumbprint Cookies from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Hot Chocolate With After Eight Peppermint from Sneha's Recipe
• Mint Chocolate Cookies (Biscuits) from Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Painted Peppermint Cookies from Culinary Cam
• Peppermint Patty Surprise Cookies from A Day in the Life on the Farm

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

Pin these Candy Cane Meringue Kisses! 

.