Gingerbread is a classic winter holiday cookie. Its spices and gooey molasses warm us up just thinking about them! Sometimes though, in the depths of winter, you need a little something extra to help you think warm thoughts. 

How to Make Tropical Gingerbread Cookies! 

 

Making & Baking Your GingerBread Cookies

Step 1. Make the Dough.

Follow the directions from your cookie mix to make the dough, which includes at least 2 hours of chilling.

Step 2. Prepare Your Surface

When you are ready to roll out your dough, sprinkle flour on the surface you are working on, such as your kitchen counter. Gingerbread dough is very sticky because of the molasses, so the flour is very important!

 

Step 3. Rolling Out the Dough

The dough will be stiff after chilling, so knead it with your hands to soften it, and then make it into a ball. Rub flour onto your ball of dough to keep it from sticking to your rolling pin. Roll out the dough so that it is between 1/8 and 1/4 inches thick. Thinner cookies will be crispier, and thicker ones will be chewier. Add more flour on top of your dough as needed to avoid sticking to the counter or rolling pin.

Step 4. Choosing Your Cookie Cutters

To add a tropical twist to your gingerbread cookies, you'll choose both traditional holiday cookie cutter shapes as well as tropical ones! We chose: a candy cane, a gingerbread man, a pineapple, a flamingo, and a palm tree. 

 

Step 5. Preparing for Baking

We suggest that you use parchment paper during baking. Not only will parchment paper help keep your cookies from sticking to the baking sheet, but it also significantly cuts down on clean up time!

When placing your cookies on the baking sheet, be sure to keep at least 1/2 inch between them so that they do not touch during baking.

 

Step 6. Baking your Cookies

Use the instructions from your cookie mix to know what temperature to set your oven, and for how long to bake your cookies.

Let your cookies fully cool before decorating. If they are too warm, it could melt your frosting and mess up your decorations. 

 

 

Decorating Your Cookies: 

Step 1. Making the Frosting

If you want to save time, you can buy pre-made frosting in tubes. However, it is very easy to make you own frosting!

Simply pour a cup of powdered sugar into a bowl (a cereal size bowl is perfect), and slowly mix in water with a spoon until your frosting reaches a thick consistency. Just how thick you make your frosting is up to you. Thinner frosting will flow faster during decorating, but will drip more and might not hold its shape as well. Thicker frosting will hold its shape well as you pipe it onto your frosting, but is a bit more difficult to pipe out. 

Step 2. Make a Piping Bag

To make thin lines with your frosting, you need to use a piping bag. Don't worry- you don't need anything fancy to make one yourself! All you need is a sandwich size plastic zip log baggie and scissors.

Push several spoonfuls of frosting into the baggie into the bottom corner of the baggie. Then cut the very tip of the corner to create a tiny hole for your frosting to squeeze out of.

 

 

Step 3. Decorate your Cookies

The sky's the limit for your decorating! We used our homemade piping bag to first outline our cookies and then add details, such as stripes and dots. More things you could do is add sprinkles before the frosting sets.

 

We hope you enjoy adding a tropical twist to your holiday and traditions!

Have a Hawaiian Holiday! - from Hawaii Hangover

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