Christmas Cookies: Honey Spice Cookies with Sugar Glaze

Christmas Cookies

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Many countries have their own traditional Christmas cookies. They are always something special: very sweet and fragrant. People bake them in the days before the holidays. When friends visit each other, they bring a small stack of cookies tied with a ribbon or a paper streamer. It is considered a very precious gift and a symbol of warm, friendly relations between people.

Most of these cookies are made with honey or with other sweet liquids such as molasses or syrups. As a rule, the dough contains plenty of spices and flavorings that give a strong aroma and a distinctly sharp taste. Combined with honey, the cookies turn out delicious and have a very delicate, pleasant smell.

In Scandinavia and the Baltic countries, they bake sweet, crisp piparkūkas (piparkūkas, pepperkake, and so on) on Christmas Eve. These are gingerbread cookies; the name literally means spice cookies. The dough gets ground dried ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, and even black pepper. The main ingredient is dark honey or molasses, and the dough is mixed with baking soda. These cookies stay fresh for a long time.

You will often come across the name braune Kuchen, meaning brown cakes. These are similar hard cookies made from a mix of rye and wheat flour with spices and honey. They say this kind of baking is a quarter of a millennium old. There are many variations, baked to different recipes and in different shapes, and depending on the region the cookies go by their own name.

To my taste, buckwheat honey works best: it is dark and has an intense aroma. How thick the honey is does not matter much, although it is easier to work with one that is not too runny. And of course, it must be natural.

In some countries Christmas cookies are called spice cakes (pryaniki). That makes sense, because the word comes from “pryany” meaning “spiced”, which fits most European Christmas cookies. This is festive baking of a special shape, often thick and domed, covered with sugar glaze. The ingredients were not always available or cheap, so these cookies were considered a treat and were baked only for holidays. My daughter and I decided to bake honey and spice cookies to give to friends and acquaintances, and Grandma was especially delighted.

Ingredients

20-25 cookies

For the dough

  • Flour 400-600 g (plus extra for dusting the table)
  • Dark honey 4-5 tbsp (85–105 g)
  • Margarine or butter 200 g
  • Brown sugar 200 g
  • Eggs 2
  • Baking soda 0.5 tsp (3 g)
  • Salt a pinch
  • Cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, vanilla to taste
  • Black pepper optional

For the glaze

  • Powdered sugar 120-150 g
  • Milk 2 tbsp
  • Food coloring optional

Step-by-step recipe

How to make the dough

If you like, you can make Christmas cookies with butter if you have any reservations about margarine. For the dough we chose ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground ginger. Black pepper is often added too; it gives the cookies a light kick and a distinctive aroma.

  1. Prepare the ingredients: take the fat out of the fridge ahead of time so it softens thoroughly at room temperature, and get the flavorings and spices ready.

  2. Mix the base for the dough. Thoroughly beat the eggs and brown sugar in the mixer bowl. Then add the softened margarine, vanilla, and all the dry flavorings.

    Preparing the base for the dough.

    Mix everything thoroughly. Since the fat is not melted, the mixture will not be perfectly smooth, but that does not matter. All the lumps will work out while you knead the dough after adding the flour. It is best to mix the base with the dough hook attachments that come with any mixer. Add the dark honey: it darkens the dough further and gives the cookies a pleasant brown color. Mix until smooth.

    Adding honey to the dough.

  3. Knead the dough. Add the baking soda to the mixture. 1/2 tsp is enough, but you can add a little more. You will not taste the soda: once it reacts with the honey, the sodium bicarbonate breaks down completely and makes the cookies lighter and airier. Then add a pinch of salt and the flour. Judge the amount of flour as you go: knead the dough, adding flour and mixing.

    Kneading a stiff dough.

    When the dough has become firmer, turn it out onto a floured table or a silicone mat, a useful and very handy kitchen accessory that I recommend. Keep adding flour and knead a stiff, tight dough. It should resist your hands noticeably as you work it.

  4. Roll the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic film, and put it in the fridge for 20-30 minutes so it cools and the margarine firms up a little. The dough will be easier to work with.

    The finished cookie dough.

How to shape the cookies

After watching the TV series “ALF”, I dreamed of baking Christmas cookies in the shape of Sparky, a gingerbread man. Now and then I remembered it, and then, quite by chance, my daughter and I bought just the right cookie cutters, exactly the shape I wanted. They are inexpensive, good quality, and come in different sizes. Still, you can use cutters of any size.

Our favorite cookie cutters.

  1. Roll the dough out with a rolling pin on a floured table into a sheet 1-1.5 cm thick and cut out figures with the cutter. It is important that the dough does not soften and lifts off the surface easily, so handle it with your hands as little as possible. Use the rolling pin, a spatula, or a wide knife. It helps to sprinkle the dough with a pinch or two of flour and rub it over the surface with your palms.

    Cut-out cookie shapes ready for baking.

How to bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C; it should be well heated. Line a baking sheet with baking paper and, trying not to touch the dough with your hands unless you have to, move the figures onto it with a spatula or knife. There is no need to grease the paper, since the dough has plenty of margarine. It is best to leave a small gap between the pieces.

    Dough shapes.

  2. Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake the Christmas cookies for 15-20 minutes. The surface will become slightly domed and take on a pleasant light brown color. The aroma of the baking is simply wonderful and tickles your nose.

    The dough bakes very quickly.

    Take the baking sheet out of the oven and move the cookies to a table or tray to cool. Be careful: the cookies are hot and can burn you. Leave them to cool to room temperature.

    The cookies should cool completely.

    Most likely you will have to bake this amount of dough in 2-3 batches.

How to make the glaze and decorate

  1. While the cookies cool, make the sugar glaze. Mix 120-150 g of powdered sugar and 2 tbsp of milk with a mixer. Whip until thick and stretchy. If needed, add more powdered sugar or milk until the consistency suits you: the glaze should not be runny, and it hardens as it sets. If you like, divide the mixture into portions and add a food coloring of any color to each.

  2. When the cookies have cooled, they are completely ready. As a rule, Christmas cookies are painted with sugar glaze. Draw whatever you like on them. Children will be especially delighted with how they look. We tried to draw different smileys: kind, cheerful, sad, thoughtful…

    Christmas cookies

Serving

  1. Once the glaze has set, you can put the finished cookies in a basket or even hang them on the New Year tree. If you are visiting parents or friends, stack a few cookies and tie them with a ribbon or a piece of paper streamer. Give them to your loved ones with holiday wishes.

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Calories and macros

449 kcal

100 g

  • Protein5.9 g5% of kcal
  • Fat15.9 g32% of kcal
  • Carbs70.2 g63% of kcal

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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To Get It Right

Honey and fat

Honey: dark, preferably buckwheat, which gives color and a strong aroma. Thickness does not matter much, but the honey must be natural. Margarine and butter work equally well: take 200 g of either. Brown sugar can be replaced with regular sugar; the cookies will come out a little lighter.

Spices

Cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground ginger are the base; for this dough about a teaspoon each of cinnamon (3 g) and ginger and half a teaspoon of nutmeg is enough. A pinch of black pepper adds a light kick, as in real piparkūkas, and cardamom works too. If you want gingerbread with more ginger, use twice as much; for crisp spiced cookies, follow a ginger cookie recipe.

So the figures hold their shape

The dough must be stiff, resisting your hands noticeably as you work it, so up to 600 g of flour may go in. Always chill it for 20-30 minutes before rolling: with cold dough the cutter cuts cleanly and the figures do not stretch. If the dough goes soft and sticky while you cut, put it back in the fridge for 10 minutes. Roll the sheet no thinner than 1 cm: thickness is what makes the cookies domed and soft inside.

Glaze and decoration

The glaze is just powdered sugar and milk: 120-150 g to 2 tbsp, thick and stretchy, so it pulls off the spoon rather than pouring. For drawing, it is handy to put it in a sturdy bag and snip off a corner. Decorate only fully cooled cookies and let the glaze dry for a few hours before stacking or packing them.

Making ahead and storage

These cookies are made for keeping: honey dough stays fresh for a long time. In a tin or a tightly closed container they keep for 2-3 weeks, so you can bake a week before Christmas. The dough can also be made ahead: wrapped in film in the fridge it keeps 2-3 days; let it warm up for about 15 minutes before rolling. A stack of cookies tied with a ribbon is a ready-made gift.

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Questions and answers

How long do you bake Christmas cookies?

15-20 minutes at 180°C, in a well-preheated oven. The finished cookies are slightly domed and light brown. Do not overbake them: they will harden further as they cool. This dough makes 2-3 baking sheets.

Can you make Christmas cookies without honey?

Yes, with molasses or dark syrup, as they do in northern Europe, in the same amount. With plain sugar instead of honey the cookies come out lighter, drier, and without that signature aroma.

Why did my cookies turn out hard?

These are dense spice cookies, but they should not be rock hard. Usually the cause is too much flour, a sheet rolled too thin, or extra minutes in the oven. Roll no thinner than 1 cm and take them out as soon as the figures turn golden. Put over-dried cookies in a closed box overnight with a slice of apple and they will soften.

Are these cookies suitable for children?

Yes, this is family baking: cutting out figures and decorating them with glaze is what children love most. For a version for children, leave out the black pepper and use less ginger and nutmeg. Natural food colorings are better: cocoa, turmeric, beet juice.

How do you hang cookies on the tree?

Make the hole before baking: pierce the raw figure with a cocktail straw about 1 cm from the edge. After baking and glazing, thread a ribbon or string through.

Can you add nuts?

Yes. Mix 50-70 g of finely chopped nuts into the dough along with the flour, or press nut halves into the raw figures before baking. With nuts, roll the cookies slightly thicker, otherwise the figures break.

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