The following recipe is sponsored by Wilfa
Soft Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes 15
These incredibly simple sandwich cookies are the epitome of wintery baking, full of warming spices like nutmeg and clove and made more intense with the addition of treacle. The dough is made with melted butter which makes the recipe quicker and easier to make but also means the cookies work wonderfully well with whatever style of mixer you have, an electric hand mixer would be ideal. If you’re in the market for a hand mixer, or maybe looking for a Christmas present idea for the baker in your life, the Wilfa Smooth Mix Hand Mixer is a great option. Firstly its incredibly sleek and stylish but more importantly its also incredibly efficient.
When I used to run macaron classes, I used to use hand mixers for the students, because I couldn’t afford and couldn’t store 10 big stand mixers. The hand mixers I used were about £40-50 each and they only ever seemed to last a few months worth of classes, obviously a total waste of money. The Wilfa hand mixer on the other hand is built to last and is a joy to use. The mixer has five speeds and a great slow start function meaning it doesn’t immediately power up to full speed, which means less flour or icing sugar flying all over your kitchen. This hand mixer has a retail price of £70 but with my discount code THEBOYWHOBAKES it would only cost £56!
125g unsalted butter, melted
175g light brown sugar
75g black treacle
1 large egg
300g plain flour
1 tbsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp ground clove
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Cream Cheese Frosting
50g unsalted butter, room temperature
125g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
50g full fat cream cheese, room temperature
Pinch of salt
To make the cookie dough add the butter, sugar and molasses to a large bowl and beat together with a Wilfa Smooth Mix - Hand Mixer, for a couple minutes until pale. Add the egg and beat together for a couple minutes until smooth and combined. Add the flour, spices, baking soda and salt and mix on low speed until a stiff dough is formed. Refrigerate the dough for at least four hours or until firm. At this point the dough can be refrigerated for up to 5 days before baking.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC Fan) and line two baking trays with parchment paper.
Roll into tablespoon sized balls, I like to use a small tablespoon sized cookie scoop to portion the dough and then roll by hand to make neat round balls. Roll the balls in granulated sugar and then set onto the prepared baking trays.
Bake for 10 mins until the cookies are crinkly and flattened but still a little domed. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the sheet tray for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. When removed straight from the oven the cookies will be very soft so don’t try and more them until the 10 minutes are up. The cookies will flatten slightly more as they cool leaving you with a chewy edge and a soft centre. Kept in a sealed container they’ll keep for 2-3 days.
To make the cream cheese frosting add the butter to a bowl and using the Wilfa hand mixer beat until soft and creamy. Add in the icing sugar a little at a time and beat on low speed until the frosting is smooth. Once all of the sugar has been mixed in turn up the mixer and beat for about 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla, cream cheese and salt and mix briefly just until a smooth mixture has formed.
Spoon or pipe the cream cheese frosting onto the base of half the cookies and sandwich together with a second cookie. Once sandwiched together the cookies will keep for up to 3 days but will slowly soften as they sit.