Glazed Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies

These sourdough gingerbread cookies are full of warming spices. They’re slightly soft in the middle and topped with a sweet glaze.

‘Tis the season to bake cookies and gingerbread cookies are one of my all-time favorites. This recipe is a great way to use up sourdough discard starter.

The starter in sourdough gingerbread cookies

The sourdough starter in this recipe can be a discard starter or a recently fed starter. The dough will undergo a long chill period time during which the bacteria in the starter begin breaking down the carbohydrates and starches in the flour.

This slow fermentation can help with digestion.

Ingredients

For these sourdough gingerbread cookies, you will need –

• Butter – You can use salted or unsalted.
• Soft brown sugar – Soft brown sugar helps to bring moisture to the cookie. If you’ve only got granulated sugar, you can subsitute it for that but remove 1 Tbsp of the granulated sugar and add an extra tablespoon of molasses instead.
• Unsulphured or blackstrap molasses  – Blackstrap molasses is stronger in flavour than unsulphured molasses, but either can be used in this recipe. The flavour just comes through a bit more with blackstrap.
• Egg 
• Vanilla – a good quality paste if you can!
• Salt 
• All-purpose flour
• Sourdough discard
• Baking soda 
• Ground ginger
• Cinnamon 
• Allspice
• Cloves

Embossed cookies

I’ve chosen to use an embossed roller for these cookies cause it’s just so pretty! Embossed cookies take a little more time because they shaped cookies need to dry out for a few hours before baking. This helps to ensure that the embossed pattern doesn’t puff and bake away in the oven.

Etsy has a huge range of embossed rollers!

To save time you can also use standard shape cookie cutters! Those can be baked right away.

Step by step instructions

The dough

Start by creaming together the butter, brown sugar, and molasses until it’s thick and fluffy. Beat in the egg and sourdough starter until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, spices, and salt. Add this to the butter mixture and combine it into a thick but sticky dough.

Flatten the dough down into an airtight container or wrap it up in a round and flat shape in a compostable plastic wrap. If you won’t roll all the cookies straight away it can be helpful to split the dough into two pieces and wrap each piece separately.

The dough needs to chill for at least 8 hours or all the way up to 36 hours.

Rolling

Generously flour the bench and place the chilled dough on it. Roll it out until it’s just over 1/2 cm (1/4 inch) thick. The initial rolling will be harder and the dough will crack. It will get easier to roll each time as the butter in the dough will soften.

Use as much flour as you need to roll it out without it sticking.

Once you’re ready to cut the cookies or use an embossed roller, brush away the excess flour from the top of the dough.

Place embossed cookies on parchment paper and let them dry out in the refrigerator for around 5 hours before baking. Cookie-cutter cookies can be baked right away.

Baking

Bake the cookies for around 8-10 minutes, depending on their size. For crispier cookies, you can bake them a few minutes longer.

Glazing

Let the cookies cool down completely before glazing.

Mix together the powdered sugar, melted butter, and milk to create a runny glaze. Use a pastry brush to brush the cooled cookies with glaze. The glaze will settle into the patterns of the embossed cookies.

Storing

Leftover cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 7 days.

Unbaked cookie dough can be wrapped up tight and frozen for up to three months. Baked cookies can be frozen too, without the glaze.

Related recipes

• Chocolate chip cookies without brown sugar
• Sourdough cookies
• Brandy snaps with cream

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