December 29, 2010

Gingy-bread Men

Yes, that's right: "Gingy"-bread Men. Anyone here like Shrek? Well, my favorite Shrek character happens to be Gingy! So I thought that this year, instead of the minimal gingerbread men decoration that I usually do, I would decorate my cookies to look like Gingy.


I used my favorite thick and chewy gingerbread cookie recipe and opted to decorate the cookies with a traditional royal icing. What makes Gingy so "Gingy-like" are: white squiggles, white leg stitches (after he's tortured, of course), white dot eyes, a red mouth, and lavender eyebrows. Oh, and of course his purple gum drop buttons. My favorite part of these cookies are definitely the candy buttons.


Decorating Gingy Cookies
Thick and Chewy Gingerbread Men
Royal Icing (recipe below)
Purple Gum Drops (instructions below)
pearl milk tea straw
knife
red food coloring
purple food coloring

Follow the recipe for the thick and chewy gingerbread men. If you need help shaping your dough cut-outs, look at the edit note at the end of this post. Then bake as indicated in the recipe. Let cool on a wire rack and once the cookies are totally cool, you can decorate.

*Edit 12/11/11:
Gumdrop Buttons
1) Use kitchen shears or a knife to cut off the tops and bottoms of the purple gumdrops
2) Lay them sticky side down on a piece of parchment or wax paper
3) Use a large straw to cut out circles for gumdrop buttons
4) Place them sticky side down back on the parchment or wax paper and set aside for later

Icing the Cookies
1) While the cookies are fresh out of the oven, take the blunt edge of a butter knife and make shallow dents where the knees should be so the legs look "broken"
2) Make the Royal Icing recipe below and decorate as above, pipe on the icing to create the borders and "stitches"
3) Add the purple gumdrops buttons, the sides that don't have sugar should be sticky enough to stick when pressed to the cookie (if not, glue them on with royal icing)
4) Tint a little of the royal icing with red food coloring and use a toothpick to draw on a mouth with the icing
5) Use the toothpick to dot on eyes
6) Tint a little of the royal icing lavender with the purple food coloring and use that icing the draw on eyebrows

Royal Icing Recipe
adapted from Wilton

1 tbsp meringue powder
1 1/3 cups powdered sugar
3 1/2 tbsp warm water

Mix the meringue powder with the powdered sugar. Add the warm water. Use a mixer on high speed and beat until stiff peaks form in the icing, 5-10 minutes.

Note: If you can't find meringue powder, there are more traditional royal icing recipes that use raw egg whites (meringue powder here acts as a substitute for egg whites). For example, on Joy of Baking.


*Edit 12/11/11:
How to Make Gingy Cut-outs
I remember last year some of you wanted to know how I made my cut-outs and what cookie cutter I used. But of course that all got deleted sometime since then, so I'll try my best to re-type everything I had up before.


First of all, this is the cookie cutter I used. It's the same one that I used for my gingerbread men back in 2009.   If you click on the link and take a look, you'll see the shape of those cookies is different from Gingy's shape. That's because the dough does spread out and puff up in the oven (the original cut-outs don't look the same as the final cookie). I didn't want to go out and buy a new cookie cutter, so I just make alterations to my dough cut-outs before I put them in the oven.

1) Place dough cut-outs onto a parchment lined baking sheet
2) Lift the arms of the dough cut-out and pull down the feet to make longer, slimmer legs
3) Use a knife to trim around the neck area and arms to form a neck and thinner arms

Note: My cookie cutter was one in a huge set of assorted plastic cookie cutters (I got it more than 10 years ago from Costco, I think). It's about 2 1/2 inches tall (head to foot) and 2 inches wide (arm span). I'm pretty sure they don't make them anymore, but there are many similar ones available online.

Also, I know when the Shrek Movie first came out, there was a Shrek Cookie Cutter set with a Gingy cookie cutter (+Shrek, Donkey, and a Castle). You can probably still find it on Ebay.

Another alternative is to find a bear/teddy bear cutter that looks approximately like the person cutter and just use a knife to trim off the ears of the dough cut-outs. Any gingerbread man cut-out can be trimmed with a knife to look like Gingy.

If all else fails, do as I do for tough cookie shapes: Google Image a picture of Gingy, shrink it down on MS Word, print it out, cut it out, spray the paper with nonstick spray, and use it as a stencil.

31 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, that's adorable! I love Gingy :)

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  2. These are so fun. We are Shrek fans. My kids would get a kick out of these cookies

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  3. holy cow, WIN.

    now you just need to make a HUGE one. ;)

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  4. Meg Johnson & Nikki: Thanks! Yay for Gingy/Shrek fans :).

    Frankie: Haha, I was even contemplating having him holding a candy "cane" like in the movie but I thought that might be too much :P.

    makeupandpearls: Thanks! OMG, a HUGE Gingy!!! That would be so awesome. I will definitely keep that idea in mind.

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  5. These are so cute! Did you cut the shape of the gingerbread with a knife or cookie cutter?

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  6. These look yummy! and thanks so much for the explanation on how to decorate them, I will try doing it this way next time ;-)

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  7. Tiffany & Barida:: Thank you!

    Stacey: I use a cookie cutter, but I also used a knife to make the shapes more Gingy-like (like a more prominent neck and getting rid of the thumbs).

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  8. Ahhh, Gingy! He was always my favorite character from Shrek. If I ever make these (and it's highly likely I will), I'll have to make a Mrs. Gingy as well. They'd be quite the pair. :)

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  9. wow - those look just like Gingy! so cute - great work on those. they're almost too cute to eat:o)

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  10. Lovely - your blog brings a smile to my face so often :) Thanks for all your cute, yummy ideas - would really appreciate it if you'd check out the baking blog I've just started - www.pretty-yummy-things.blogspot.com - inspired by Diamonds for Dessert!!

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  11. So ADORABLE! I love Gingy! :D How did you find a cookie cutter so similar to his shape? None of my cutters and none of the cutters I've seen look anything similar to Gingy. I guess I will keep searching..

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  12. These are so creative and cute....I love them!

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  13. Those are SO adorable! And I love thick chewy gingerbread too. Recipe bookmarked!

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  14. This is really too cute. I will have to remember this for next year! But, my question is, where did you get the great gingy cookie-cutters? I have a gingerbread cookie-cutter, but it's not like yours! I just looked up and saw another comment like this. Sorry for the repeat! haha.

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  15. Marie: I know right? Gingy is so awesome. Haha, Mrs. Gingy! That sounds super cute! What a great idea.

    Sarah, Anonymous, Jenni Price Illustration: Thanks all!

    Aimee: Thank you! I'll check it out :).

    Y: It's definitely my go-to recipe for gingerbread cookies :D.

    i bake for you & thehandicappedkitchen: Good question! I'm going to edit my post above to mention how I made my cut-outs look more Gingy-like :).

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  16. One of my favorites! So fresh and chewy even after staying in the freezer for awhile. Amazing ginger flavor. I'll definitely be using this recipe soon!

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  17. Joanna: Definitely try it out! It's an awesome recipe :).

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  18. Hi there!

    First of all i would like to say that i absolutely LOVE your blog! All your recipes look so delicious and gorgeous!
    Secondly i want to ask you if you could get the instructions for the gingy-bread men back up. I know you're probably really busy, but it would be lovely if you could do it.
    Thank you so much!

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  19. Hi, I was wondering if you could post the icing recipe :) I'd really like to make these!

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  20. heeeeey! it's almost christmas, we want that recipe (and instructions) back!! :P
    i love everything that you make, hehe

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  21. Anonymous 1, Anonymous 2, kaede: Sorry for such a late response. Thanks for the reminder. I will have the instructions back up by the end of this weekend!!!

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  22. May i know.., err.. , where's the royal icing recipe? D:
    It's written dere "recipe below".. but there's no recipe of such.. D:
    I wanna make gingy~~!! TAT *cries for help*

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  23. hiroe chitose: Just retyped the missing information and updated my post. Check above.

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  24. Thank you!! The recipe for the cookies is the one you use at some previous posts, right? Thanks again! We're definitely trying those!

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  25. Love this recipe! Will be linking back to this in my upcoming post :)

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  26. love this recipe ! but I have a problem with the butter, I'm living in Italy and I don't now the quantity exactly of this ingredient...please help me,thank you !

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  27. This idea is just incredible! They are so cute!😍 thank you so much for sharing it and congrats for making so many of us not only remember our childhood, but also to taste it.

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