Swedish Orange Gingersnaps Recipes

SWEDISH ORANGE GINGERSNAPS

Steps:

• In a mixing bowl or standing mixer cream together the butter and sugar until light. Beat in 1 egg and mix in the molasses, orange juice, and zest. Sift together the dry ingredients and stir them into the wet ingredients to make a soft, smooth dough, adding more flour if dough is too sticky. Knead the dough three times on a lightly floured board.
• Shape the dough into 3 logs, about 8-inches long, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Slice logs into thin circles, less than 1/8-inch thick. Place on lightly greased baking sheets.
• Bake cookies for about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer cookies to a rack to cool.

PEPPARKAKOR (SWEDISH GINGER COOKIES)

Steps:

• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, and salt.
• In a small saucepan over moderate heat, warm the corn syrup and orange zest. Add the butter and sugar and continue warming, stirring occasionally, until melted. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Add the egg and whisk to combine. Pour over the flour mixture and stir to combine. Form the dough into a ball, wrap in a double layer of plastic wrap, and chill overnight.
• Arrange racks in the upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat to 375°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with nonstick baking mats, such as Silpats, or parchment paper.
• Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out a portion of the dough on a lightly floured surface to a 1/4 inch thickness. Using cookie cutters, cut the dough into desired shapes, such as circles, stars, hearts, bells, gingerbread men, and Christmas trees. Transfer to the prepared baking sheets and sprinkle with the pearl sugar. Bake, switching the cookies between the upper and lower racks and rotating the baking sheets about halfway through baking, until the edges are just beginning to brown, 7 to 8 minutes. Watch the cookies carefully to make sure they don't get too brown.
• Let the cookies cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to let cool completely. Continue rolling and cutting out the rest of the cookie dough and baking the cookies on cooled baking sheets. DO AHEAD: Pepparkakor can be baked ahead and kept, stored between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container, for up to 2 weeks, or frozen up to 1 month.

SWEDISH GINGER SNAPS (PEPPARKAKOR)

Steps:

• Whisk pastry flour (or all-purpose flour and cornstarch), baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon and cloves together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
• Combine butter, sugar and molasses in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on medium speed until mixture is light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. This will take longer if you are mixing by hand. Reduce speed to low and add the egg. Mix until fully combined.
• Add flour mixture to butter mixture. Mix on low speed until just combined. Using a spatula, transfer dough to a large piece of plastic wrap. Wrap tightly and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or up to one day or, alternatively, place dough in the freezer for 20 to 30 minutes. The dough will be easier to work with if it is well-chilled.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place 1/2 cup of sugar in a small bowl and find a drinking glass with a flat bottom.
• Remove a portion of the dough from the refrigerator. Tearing off one small piece at a time, roll dough between your palms into a small ball about 1/2 -3/4 inch in diameter. Dough will be sticky. Place dough ball in the bowl of sugar and roll it around until it is completely coated. Place ball on prepared baking sheet.
• Continue with remaining dough until baking sheet is filled, leaving at least 1 inch of space between each dough ball on the baking sheet. Dip the bottom of the drinking glass into the bowl of sugar and press down on each ball flattening it into a disc approximately 1/4 inch thick. Be sure to dip the glass in the sugar before flattening each cookie.
• Place baking sheet in the oven and bake cookies for 8-10 minutes or until cookies are just set. Do not over bake if you want the center of the cooke to remain slightly chewy. Let cool completely on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack. Repeat with remaining dough, rechilling the dough as necessary if it becomes difficult to work with.

PEPPARKAKOR (SWEDISH GINGER COOKIES)

Steps:

• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda. Set aside.
• In a medium saucepan set over medium heat, combine the butter, both sugars, molasses, ginger, cinnamon, orange extract, salt, cloves, and pepper. As the butter melts, whisk until the sugar dissolves and the mixture begins to simmer. Remove from heat. Cool until just warm to the touch, about 30 minutes.
• Whisk the egg into the cooled mixture until smooth. Pour over the dry ingredients and fold with a rubber spatula until no dry flour remains. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.
• Heat the oven to 350 F with racks in the upper- and lower-middle positions. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Working with a tablespoonful of dough at a time, use dampened hands to roll into balls. Arrange 12 dough balls on each baking sheet, spacing evenly.
• Lay a sheet of plastic wrap over the balls on each sheet and use the bottom of a dry measuring cup to flatten each to about ¼ inch thick. Remove the plastic and bake until richly browned, 14 to 16 minutes, switching and rotating the baking sheets halfway through to ensure even baking. Cool on the sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.

SWEDISH GINGERSNAPS

Steps:

• Cream butter and sugar; add eggs and molasses.
• Stir in spices and soda.
• Mix in flour.
• Roll into balls the size of walnuts and then in sugar.
• Place 2-inches apart on cookie sheets.
• Bake in 350° oven for 10-11 minutes until golden brown.

INCREDIBLY CRISP GINGERSNAPS

Steps:

• Set racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices in a bowl; stir well to mix. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together on medium speed the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes until very light, fluffy and whitened. Add the egg and continue beating until smooth. Lower speed and beat in half the dry ingredients, then the molasses. Stop the mixer and scrape down bowl and beater. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients. Remove bowl from mixer and use a large rubber spatula to finish mixing the dough. Use a small ice cream scoop to scoop out 1-inch diameter pieces of dough. Roll into balls between the palms of your the hands, then roll in the sugar. Place the balls of dough on the prepared pans leaving about 3 inches all around each, to allow for spreading. Bake the cookies for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until they have spread, the surface has crackled, and they are firm to the touch. Slide the papers from the pans to racks. Store the cooled cookies between sheets of parchment or waxed paper in a tin or platic container witha tight-fitting cover.

GINGERSNAPS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and grease cookie sheets. Cream the butter with the brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the molasses and egg and beat until smooth. Sift the flour with baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and cloves. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until well blended. Pinch off a little of the dough and roll it into 1-inch balls (dough may be very moist, if so, dip hands in warm water before forming balls). Dip each ball into the granulated sugar and arrange sugar side up on prepared baking sheet approximately 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until cracked on top.

SWEDISH GINGERSNAPS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
• Butter a large cookie sheet.
• Whip cream until almost stiff.
• Combine sugar, molasses, syrup, ginger, lemon rind and baking soda and mix thoroughly. Pour into cream and beat for 10 minutes by hand or four minutes in an electric mixer.
• Add five cups of flour and blend in thoroughly. Beat in remaining flour gradually until dough is just smooth enough to handle but still soft and pliable.
• Wrap in waxed paper and chill several hours or overnight.
• Roll out to one-fourth-inch thickness on a lightly floured board. Cut into fancy shapes, such as animals, boys, girls, stars, hearts and crescents, with cookie cutters about two and a half inches wide, or cut into gingerbread boys or girls in any size.
• Place on cookie sheet and bake for about 12 minutes, or until evenly golden brown.

SWEDISH ORANGE GINGERSNAPS

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl or using a standing mixer cream the butter and sugar until light and well combined, beat in one egg.
• Add the molasses, orange juice, and zest. Sift the dry ingredients together and stir into the mixture making a soft, smooth dough. More flour can be added if dough is too sticky.
• Place dough on lightly floured surface and knead the dough three times. Separate dough into three pieces and shape into logs, approximately eight inches long. Wrap logs well in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice logs into circles, 1/8-inch thick or less and place on lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake for about 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. When baked, place cookies on wire racks to cool.

SWEDISH CHRISTMAS GINGER SNAPS (PEPPARKAKOR)

Steps:

• Put butter into a large mixing bowl. Combine water, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves in a saucepan. Heat to boiling, boil 1 minute, stirring. Pour hot spice mixture over butter; stir to melt butter. Sift flour, measure 2 cups, and sift again with baking soda. Add to spice mixture; stir to blend thoroughly. Cover dough tightly or wrap in waxed paper or aluminum foil. Chill in refrigerator 12 hours or overnight. Cut off small, workable portions of dough. Roll each out very thin (about 1/8" thick) on a lightly floured board. Cut into shapes with fancy cooky cutters. With flexible spatula, lift cookies onto greased baking sheet. Bake in a moderately hot oven (375 degrees farenheit) about 8 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on wire racks. Make icing: Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Beat in vanilla and enough powdered sugar so that mixture holds soft peaks when beater is lifted. Spoon icing into force bag. Decorate cooled cookies. Variation: Do not roll out chilled dough. Instead, pinch off small portions and roll, between palms, into balls about 3/4" in diameter. Drop balls into granulated sugar to coat all sides. Bake as for cut-out cookies.