Disneyland's Gingerbread Recipe
The popular and original Disneyland gingerbread recipe - perfect for any occasion!
Equipment
- Large mixing bowl
- Plastic wrap
- Rolling pin
- Cookie sheets
Ingredients
Gingerbread Ingredients
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup "fancy" dark molasses *make sure it doesn't say cooking, blackstrap, unsulphured, or lite
- 3 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3 tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- ½ cup water
Royal Icing Ingredients
- ⅛ tsp cream of tartar
- 2 egg whites
- 3 ½ cups powdered sugar
Instructions
Gingerbread Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar.
- Add dark molasses and mix until completely blended.
- Sift the dry ingredients together and add to butter mixture, 1/3 at a time, alternating with the water. Blend well.
- Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator at least 1 hour, or up to a few days.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
- Use a floured rolling pin to roll out dough on a floured surface, about 1/8-1/4th inch thick. (Don’t be afraid to use plenty of flour.)
- Cut into desired shapes (we used a standard gingerbread man)
- Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Cool on wire racks
- Optional: Decorate with Royal Icing when completely cooled (instructions below)
Royal Icing Instructions (*I did not test this)
- Add cream of tartar to egg whites in a chilled mixing bowl.
- Beat with an electric mixer at high speed until white peaks form. Reduce speed and gradually add sifted powdered sugar. Continue to whip the frosting until a smooth spreadable consistency is reached.
- Optional: Separate frosting into small bowls and add food coloring. Spoon frosting into cake decorating bags or plastic baggies with a corner cut off, and decorate cookies. The frosting will harden when dry.
Notes
This dough works great for all shapes and sizes you may want to cut it into. I made trees, candy canes, men, and Mickeys. They all held their shape well – I think it would be a great recipe for making a gingerbread house!
Instead of doing frosting (to save time, and because I’m not a very good artist), I put m&m’s on the men about halfway through baking. On the Mickeys, I melted a few chocolate chips and spread the chocolate on their Mickey ears to mimic the gingerbread you can find in the Parks during the regular season.
This was a great activity to do with my 4 year old, I gave him a hunk of dough and let him go to town rolling and cutting out shapes – he loved it!
