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Gingerbread sweet rolls, and cookies too

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Gingerbread sweet rolls, and cookies too

Hello,

This "cake" was made for a surprise Bridal shower, for a dear young lady (and cinnamon-bun over) I know who is getting married this month.
Instead of a cake, I baked three large cinnamon-buns and stacked them up, frosted with white chocolate cream cheese buttercream, and decorated with gingerbread cookies (the cookies spell out 'Bri and Ben 2010').
 


I made two batches of Ciril Hitz's Basic Sweet Dough.  This equates to about 2500 grams of dough, or a little over 5 pounds. I used 3" deep pans. 
In keeping with the December wedding-gingerbread theme, instead of the traditional cinnamon filling, I made a gingerbread-flavored filling for the sweet buns. Here is the formula I came up with for the gingerbread-flavored filling (this was my second try at the filling; this version added a bit more spice and molasses).
Note: the amounts below are for one batch; I doubled the amounts below to make the amount I needed for this project:

115  grams  brown sugar
5.5  grams  ground cinnamon
5.5  grams  ground cloves
8.5  grams  ground ginger
86  grams  molasses
17.5  grams  flour
102  grams  margarine
grated nutmeg to taste

 

The filling is not overly sweet, once baked. But the frosting added a nice bit of sweetness; an icing-sugar-glaze for these buns would work well too.
The frosting is a ratio of:
1.5 parts white chocolate, melted & cooled to
2 parts softened cream cheese to
1 part softened unsalted butter
With a bit of lemon juice blended in (.125 parts).

 

The cookies were made using a recipe I found in an old Food & Wine magazine. These are seriously good cookies and I make them every Christmas. I have to share the recipe here, in case anyone is interested!:

Gingerbread Cookies

4 cups (500g) flour
Measure into a mixing bowl.

¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon Dutch-processed cocoa
1 Tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Sift together so there are no lumps and whisk into the flour.

1 cup (1/2 pound or 8 ounces by weight) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
In stand mixer, cream butter until the butter leaves little 'tails'.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Mix in sugar 1 Tablespoon at a time and cream mixture until it's light and fluffy.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

1 large egg, room temperature
Mix into butter mixture.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

½ cup unsulfured molasses
Mix into butter/egg mixture.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add dry ingredients on slow speed and mix until just combined.
Cut dough in 1/3's, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 2 hours, or preferably, overnight.

The next day:
Preheat oven to 350F or 335F convection.
Roll dough 3/16" thick and cut out cookies.
Bake 8-10 minutes, depending on thickness.
Let cookies cool on the sheet until firm, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Decorate as desired...     :^)

 

Happy Christmas baking, everyone!  Regards, breadsong

 

PaddyL's picture
PaddyL

And beautiful looking!  Bet it tasted divine!

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hello PaddyL, Thank you for your compliments. I wasn't sure how a white chocolate frosting would go with gingerbread flavors, but then stopped worrying about it as how could white chocolate ever be a bad thing!   Regards, breadsong

highmtnpam's picture
highmtnpam

Breadsong, you have so much imagination.  It's a treat to see your work!

Pam

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hi Pam, You are so kind. I don't really see myself as having much imagination; I mostly copy others' good ideas (there are so many talented, creative people out there!). 
I am glad you liked the "cake". I'm glad it sort of looked like a cake by the time I was done. I wasn't really sure how it was going to turn out! 
Regards, breadsong