A delicious, warm and spiced gingerbread recipe for cookies that do not spread! These are perfect for decorating with fondant and royal icing, or as a cookie cake layered with buttercream. Vegan substitutes at the bottom of the recipe so you can make them egg and/or dairy-free. 

No-Spread Gingerbread

Makes approximately 45 medium sized cookies.

• 200g unsalted butter, room temp
• 100g brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, cold
• 1 cup treacle
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 750g plain flour
• 6 tsp ground ginger
• 4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 150C (no fan).

Cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, scraping the sides of your mixer if you need to. Add the eggs and beat on a medium speed until mixed. It may look a bit curdled because the eggs are cold but that is okay, this helps with the no-spread. Add the vanilla extract and treacle and mix to combine.

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl then add to the egg mix and combine together on a low speed until the dough comes together and starts to pull away from the sides. Use a paddle attachment for this step if you can.

The dough should be quite soft but not sticky when you handle it. Roll a big handful of dough between two sheets of baking paper. You may need to hold down the bottom edge of the baking paper to gentle push down the rolling pin to get a nice, even finish. The dough is very soft so I recommend moving the sheet of rolled dough to a baking tray, cutting your shapes and removing the excess dough rather than trying to transfer the shapes.

Bake medium sized cookies for 16 minutes (turning the trays half way). Large cookies and cookie cake shapes for 20 minutes. Check the cookies when they are no longer shiny on top, they do firm up once cooled down.

Vegan alternative: Replace the butter with chilled dairy-free butter (like Nuttelex Buttery) straight from the fridge, and replace the eggs with 1/2 cup of aquafaba (the liquid from a can of chickpeas).

Inspiration: