Latte Gingerbread Cookies

Latte Gingerbread Cookies are prepared with classic Christmas ingredients like ginger, cloves, cinnamon, instant espresso powder, and molasses. Once baked, the cookies are drizzled with a brown butter frosting. The taste of these cookies instantly floods the senses with memories of Christmases past!

Two of my favourite things collide in this recipe and those two things are lattes and the flavours of gingerbread. These Latte Gingerbread Cookies are the epitome of indulgence and I can’t think of a better time than Christmas to throw any concerns of indulgence out the window! After all, if you can’t indulge a little at Christmastime, then when can you!?

I think we start eating gingerbread-flavoured baked goods in late September. And, that, Dear Reader, can be blamed on Starbucks! One of my favourite things about going anywhere in the car is a quick stop at Starbucks for a Cinnamon Dolce Latte and a Ginger Molasses Cookie! I know they have those two things all year round, but they taste better when the weather starts to cool and a sweater is necessary.

Gingerbread is most commonly eaten at Christmastime. Why is that? Why do we only eat the most delicious things once a year? It’s like those of us who save our best china for when company visits. Why does our company deserve better than your own family? I say that life is too short not to use the fine china every day if you have it. And, just like the fancy dishes, apply the same logic to eating really good cookies too!

I’m going to tell you all about this cookie recipe and how you can make it in your home this holiday season, but first, I want to tell you about what you can expect from Lord Byron’s Kitchen this Christmas. I know we’re getting closer to the big day, so it’s time to get to the cookie recipes! Before I get into today’s recipe, let me make mention of the three previous holiday confection countdowns that I just finished up this year.

Back in October, I kicked off the holiday season with a holiday recipe series called Lord Byron’s 12 Holiday Trifle Series and followed that up with a second series called Lord Byron’s 12 Holiday Breads and Loaves. Next was my 12 Squares and Bars Series, which was Volume 2 of that particular series.  

And now, I’m starting on this new series, which is the seventh annual instalment! I cannot believe that this is the seventh year in a row that I’ve shared Lord Byron’s 24 Cookies of Christmas! But, before we get to a list of ingredients and instructions for today’s recipe, let me tell you about this series and more!

LORD BYRON’S 24 COOKIES OF CHRISTMAS SERIES

Another holiday series, Lord Byron? Yes – why not!? Welcome, Dear Reader, to the fourth of my annual holiday recipe series for this season! This one is called Lord Byron’s 24 Cookies of Christmas – Volume 7! I will try to keep the recipes in this series quick and easy, just like in previous years. Even if a recipe looks complex, I promise you that it is not! My goal, as always, is to share recipes with you that are not too complex to whip up as a holiday treat for your family.

Like every other holiday series I’ve shared over the years, this series will share a new recipe every day for the next 24 days – even on Saturday and Sunday! You might be asking yourself, how many Christmas recipes could one possibly have or need? Well, I say you can never have too much of a good thing. And, I love having lots of choices. Who wants to prepare the same holiday recipes year after year?

SUBSCRIBE NOW SO THAT YOU NEVER MISS OUT ON NEW RECIPES!

So, welcome, Dear Reader, to Lord Byron’s 24 Cookies of Christmas series! Even though this is the fourth series for this holiday season, you can always look back at previous years if you just cannot wait until the next recipe is published. Also, some of my favourite recipe collections from previous years are my 75 Homemade Gifts from Your Kitchen, my 50 Make Ahead Freezer Friendly Christmas Recipes, and my 30 No-Bake Christmas Recipes post.

You really don’t want to miss one of these recipes, so if you have not yet subscribed to Lord Byron’s Kitchen, I encourage you to do so. That way, a new recipe will be emailed to you every day. You won’t have to bother to come looking for it! Like in previous holiday recipe countdowns, I like to mix up the recipes in the series so that there is something for everyone. Are you ready!!??

INGREDIENTS NEEDED TO PREPARE THIS RECIPE

The following is a list of the ingredients needed to prepare this recipe. For exact amounts and measurements, refer to the printable recipe card located near the bottom of this post.

• Flour – No need for anything special. Just use regular all-purpose flour. I have not tried this recipe with any other type of flour.
• Espresso Powder – It sounds fancy, but it isn’t. I got mine at Walmart.
• Baking Soda
• Spices – You will need ground ginger, ground cinnamon, and ground cloves.
• Salt
• Butter – Make sure your butter is at room temperature!
• Brown Sugar – For colour, flavour, and sweetness!
• Eggs – Whenever you set out to bake, make sure your eggs are at room temperature too – just like your butter!
• Eggs – Whenever you set out to bake, make sure your eggs are at room temperature too – just like your butter!
• Turbinado Sugar

For the Brown Butter Frosting:

• Butter
• Confectioner’s Sugar
• Milk – I always use whole milk when baking unless otherwise specified.
• Vanilla Bean Paste – This has a strong vanilla flavour and has vanilla beans in it. It’s a more economical way to get the little black flecks of vanilla beans into baked goods without buying expensive pods!
• Ground Cinnamon

HOW TO MAKE LATTE GINGERBREAD COOKIES

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the molasses and egg. Beat well to combine. Add the dry ingredients in this order: flour, espresso powder, baking soda, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and salt. On low speed, beat to incorporate all of the ingredients. Don’t over mix, just until the white of the flour disappears.

Portion the cookie dough into 2 tablespoon mounds. Roll the mounds into a ball and then roll each ball into the turbinado sugar. Place on the baking sheet leaving a 3-inch space between each cookie. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool for five minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

To frost the cookies, add the butter to a saucepan over medium heat. Melt the butter and continue to cook it until the butter browns slightly. You should smell a toasted smell; that’s when you will know it’s done. Remove the butter from the heat and allow it to cool for 5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients to the saucepan with the browned butter and whisk to incorporate and blend. Drizzle the frosting over the cooled cookies and allow the frosting to firm and set before transferring the cookies to a container or cookie jar.

VANILLA BEAN PASTE

What is vanilla bean paste anyway? Have you used it before? I’ve only just learned of it myself about a year ago. I was reading through a dessert cookbook and it seemed like every third recipe had vanilla bean paste as one of the ingredients. I was intrigued.

Vanilla bean paste is a mixture of vanilla bean seeds, sugar, vanilla extract, and some type of thickener. In most cases, it’s corn syrup. It is a pourable substance, but not like water. It is more like molasses! The best part about it is that the vanilla flavour and scent are more intense, so if you love vanilla, try it! It is certainly a less expensive way to get those characteristic black flecks of a vanilla bean into your baking. Buying and scraping whole beans is not only tedious but expensive too.

If you don’t have any, or if you don’t want to buy any for these Latte Gingerbread Cookies, you can simply use regular vanilla extract. Use one teaspoon of vanilla extract in place of the vanilla bean paste.

MOLASSES 101

There are basically three types of molasses – light, dark, and blackstrap. If you boil cane sugar once, you will get light molasses. If you boil it twice, you’ll get dark molasses. So, boiling it three times must mean that you’ll get blackstrap molasses. Remember, the darker the molasses (blackstrap) the less sweet and more bitter it is.

Never use blackstrap molasses in a recipe unless instructed to do so by the author of the recipe. You can use light or dark without changing the taste drastically. There are also sulphured and unsulphured molasses. The difference between the two is that the sulphured molasses has been chemically treated with preservatives. Nearly 100% of the time, I use unsulphured light molasses.

STORING, PACKAGING, & FREEZING

When it comes to most cookies, they taste best at room temperature, but they don’t hold up well to being left out on your countertop for a long time. Cookies will stay fresh in a cookie jar or food-safe container with a lid for 3-5 days if left to sit on your kitchen countertop. You can store them in a food-safe container in your fridge. When you want one, two, or half a dozen, take them out of the container and place them in a single layer on a plate. Let them sit at room temperature for 5 minutes and they’re ready!

If you plan to freeze your Latte Gingerbread Cookies, you certainly can! Pile them into a clean, food-safe container, being sure to lay a sheet or wax or parchment paper between each layer. The container must be freezer-friendly! You’ll want to ensure a very tight-fitting lid too. I use these quite often when freezing baked goods. I like to place a sheet of plastic wrap over the top of the container before pushing the lid on. This helps to create a better seal. The goal is to keep all of that freshness locked in!

You can freeze these cookies for up to three months. If you plan to give previously frozen cookies as a gift, I would lay them out on a wire cooling rack to thaw completely. Once thawed, pile into cellophane bags and tie with a ribbon, or stack in a cookie tin/box.

QUESTIONS?

If I have not answered all of your questions in the text above, don’t hesitate to reach out to me! You can contact me by sending me a message in the comments section further down the page. I will try my best to answer as soon as possible! You might reach me even faster by following me on Facebook and sending me a private message. Scroll down below the recipe card to find my Follow Me on Social Media box and never miss another recipe!

Finally, as I stated previously, every day I will be posting a new recipe. If you miss one, don’t fret. You can find my entire collection of Christmas Recipes right here! There are over 200 Christmas recipes and counting. There’s something for everyone! Cheers!