Spiced Cinnamon and Ginger Cookies
These spiced cinnamon cookies are truly amazing, scented with orange and cinnamon, with a caramel flavor given by brown sugar, which makes them extraordinarily soft and chewy.
These homemade spiced cinnamon cookies are also ideal as a gift, especially during the Christmas period, and keep well in an airtight container (or in food bags) for up to a week.
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- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Affordable
- Rest time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 30 cookies
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter, Christmas
Ingredients for the Spiced Cinnamon Cookies
- 2 3/4 cups All-purpose flour
- 1 cups Powdered sugar
- 3/4 cups Brown sugar (Muscovado sugar)
- 4 oz Golden syrup (or acacia honey or inverted sugar)
- 1/2 cups Butter (softened)
- 1 Egg (medium, at room temperature)
- 1 tsp Ground ginger (about 3 g)
- 1 tsp Nutmeg
- 4 tsp Ground cinnamon (about 30 g)
- 1 Clove (ground)
- 1 tbsp Vanilla extract
- 1 tsp Baking soda (about 2 grams)
- 1 Orange zest (grated, untreated)
Tools
- Scale digital, with removable bowl and alarm timer
- Bowls Guzzini set of bowls of various sizes
- Stand mixer Kenwood with 1400 W power, illuminated bowl
- Baking sheet adjustable
Preparation of Spiced Cinnamon Cookies
Premise:
The Brown sugar, is NOT refined cane sugar, but muscovado sugar. The characteristic of this type of sugar is its unmistakable caramel aroma, very pleasant and fragrant and makes the desserts soft and moist.
The Golden Syrup is very often present in many American desserts and, to reassure you, I immediately say that you can safely replace it with acacia honey (or wildflower).
The Golden Syrup is NOT maple syrup and is NOT glucose syrup; in practice, it is “inverted sugar“ (a very liquid caramel prepared with a high percentage of hot water compared to sugar) that can be found in the best-stocked pastry shops or ordered online or, if you wish, you can also prepare it at home this interesting article by Bressanini , easily explains how to obtain it.
If you don’t feel like making it at home, as mentioned above, you can safely use excellent wildflower or acacia honey as a replacement (which is a kind of natural inverted sugar).
Once these necessary clarifications are made, let’s move on to the instructions for preparing these delicious spiced cinnamon cookies:
First, sift the 1 cup of powdered sugar with 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon in a bowl and mix well.
Set this cinnamon-flavored sugar aside to roll the cookies in once you’ve baked them and they’re warm.
In another bowl, sift and mix flour, the remaining cinnamon, spices, and baking soda.
In the stand mixer bowl, put the butter, brown sugar, golden syrup (or honey), vanilla extract, and orange zest and beat until you have a fluffy and light mixture.
Using a teaspoon (or wet hands), take the amount of dough you need to form a ball, which you will place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. DO NOT make them too small; the cookies should be nice and thick, otherwise they will be dry and crunchy, while they should be soft and chewy.
Keep the balls at least 1 inch apart from each other because they will spread during baking.
It’s important, once the baking sheet is filled, to put it in the fridge for at least 15 minutes so that the cookies do not flatten during baking
Bake the cookies in a preheated oven at 350 °F for about 10/15 minutes (depending on your oven); NOT longer, otherwise, they will dry out too much, until the cookies are golden brown and have a cracked surface. At first, they will seem very soft, BUT then, as they cool, they will become firmer.
Once the cookies are warm, with a small spatula and delicately, remove them from the baking sheet and roll them in the bowl with the cinnamon-flavored powdered sugar (set aside previously) making sure they are well covered in sugar.
Let them cool completely before consuming, but you will see that these cookies will be even better the next day, as the flavors and spices blend better.
Notes and Tips
If desired, you can omit the spiced powdered sugar and dip half of the cookie in couverture dark chocolate, then let it cool completely.
By mixing brown sugar with white sugar 50:50, you get “light brown sugar“, often found in many Anglo-Saxon dessert and cookie recipes.
The recipe is adapted from the blog Andante con gusto by Patrizia Malomo.
Shopping Tips !!!
To work the dough effortlessly, I use my Titanium Chef Patissier XL stand mixer with illuminated 7L bowl, 1400 W power, integrated scale and blender, a faithful ally in the kitchen for: kneading, weighing, whipping, cooking, grinding, melting chocolate, pasteurizing eggs.
If you are looking for a more economical stand mixer, you can safely purchase the Kenwood Titanium Chef Baker stand mixer, with double bowl 5l and 3.5l and 1200 W power, integrated scale.
Finally, I recommend this very handy multi-purpose extendable baking sheet, ideal for cookies, pizzas, savory and sweet pies, focaccias.
The Golden Syrup is free from artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives. Suitable for vegetarians. Gluten-free. You can easily purchase it on Amazon.
You can purchase all the items I recommend above, on Amazon, at a great price, just click directly on the related links.
How to make brown sugar at home?
If desired, “Brown sugar” can be made at home using the following proportions: 10 parts white sugar and 1 part molasses.
With 200 g of sugar and 20 g of (warm to soften and easily mix) molasses, you get 220 g of brown sugar.
Mix sugar and molasses with a mixer or electric whisk, but you can also do it by hand.
