Starry Night Gingerbread Cookies

gingerbread cookies with royal icing are a yearly tradition at our house

A lot of my holiday traditions revolve around the kitchen, not surprisingly! And one of my favorites is my annual gingerbread cookie bake. Sometimes I have a daughter or two with me, my youngest Molly helped with my polar bears, and Clare was the mastermind behind last year’s pepparkakor reindeer. But sometimes I’m alone, and I keep it going for the sake of tradition.

I choose a different cookie shape each year, and this year I chose stars. Gingerbread stars, of different types and sizes, iced with bright white royal icing are the perfect base for a fun collection of metallic sprinkles and make a ‘stellar’ cookie platter.

classic royal icing is sweet and sturdy, with just 2 ingredients

Royal icing dries famously hard, so these sturdy cookies can be stacked high on a plate, or packaged as gifts without worry. It’s a brilliant white, and has a perfectly flat, matte surface, so it makes the ideal canvas for embellishment of all kinds.

how to make royal icing

• Egg whites are whipped with lots of sifted powdered sugar
• The mixture is thinned with water to your desired thickness, depending on whether you want to dip, spread, or pipe your frosting
• You can color it with food coloring or leave it white
• It’s made with raw egg whites, but you can use pasteurized eggs or meringue powder for safety

this gingerbread dough is the best! here’s why:

• It rolls out easily with minimal sticking
• You can reform the dough without issues
• The cookies hold their crisp shape and puff up just enough
• The flavor is spicy and assertive
• The aroma while these cookies are baking is transcendent!!

how to frost gingerbread cookies the easy way

True gingerbread is so flavorful it really doesn’t need any embellishment, but the frosting and sprinkles make these cookies so festive it’s hard to resist. Frosting cookies can sometimes be tricky, especially when piping bags are involved, but don’t worry, my method is super easy!

• Put your royal icing in a wide shallow bowl. Tap and stir to release any bubbles. The consistency should be thick but pourable, sort of like pancake batter. Royal icing can be thinned with water, and thickened with more (sifted) powdered sugar.
• Dip each cookie face down into the frosting until the whole surface of the cookie makes contact with the frosting.
• Lift straight up and allow the excess to drip down. This might take a few seconds, be patient.
• Flip the cookie over swiftly.
• And set on a rack to dry.
• After a few cookies you’ll have the technique down pat. You need to allow the excess to drip off before flipping for a perfectly iced cookie.

This technique requires thick sturdy cookies so your fingers have something to grab onto while dipping. Cookies dipped this way will be perfectly covered, edge to edge, no piping required.

metallic and sparkly sprinkles are perfect for these star cookies

I like to gather an assortment of metallic sprinkles and glitter for super glittery stars. You have all sorts of choices, if you’re a sprinkle collector like me, or you can just buy one or two at the grocery store.

• silver metallic sprinkles
• gold pearls
• metallic dragees
• edible glitter
• gold sugar
• metallic stars
• gold confetti
• edible hologram glitter
• shimmer dust
• snowflake sprinkles

Let the dipped cookies set for a minute or two, and then sprinkle on your decorations while they’re still wet. Let the cookies dry completely before touching or moving them.