Gingerbread Men and Decorating Ideas (Biscuits Speculoos)

Gingerbread Men in France

Not to be confused with French gingerbread known as pain d'épices, particularly famous in the three towns: Reims, Dijon (see more in my article), and Gertwiller in Alsace. There's even a gingerbread museum (Musée du pain d'épices) in Gertwiller (Bas-Rhin) for all you need to know about it and its traditions.

French gingerbread is mainly made of flour, honey and spices.

What are Gingerbread Men Traditionally Called in France?

In France, gingerbread men have been traditionally made in Alsace since the 12th century. Known as 'Mennele', they are brioche based and often decorated with coloured icing. Tradition has it that Saint-Nicolas offers them as gifts on December 6th. The best Mennele can be found made by French pastry chefs from Alsace, Christophe Felder and Jacquy Pfeiffer (who made that apple nougat tart). See more about the bakeries of where to buy them in my food guide to Strasbourg.

This recipe, however, is not the same, as it's more a biscuit rather than brioche and made with flour and gingerbread spice without honey.

Easy Recipe for Gingerbread Men

I initially got this recipe from French pastry chef, Kevin Lacote. Known for his fabulous pâtisserie near Paris' Parc Monceau, I already talk about him in my Guide to the Best Tea Rooms in Paris (just look up the location area as Paris 17th). If you love Parisian flan, then he makes one of the best in Paris - including a gorgeous pistachio version. Not to be confused with a crème caramel (flan aux oeufs). Anyway - it's worth the detour!

This is only a quarter of pastry chef, Kevin Lacote's recipe from the November/December 2021 issue of Fou de Pâtisserie magazine. As his is much more complex with a praline pecan and chocolate version stuck together, I was happy with this simpler version.

I adapted it only by replacing his lemon zest with the zest of a lime and have to say, the taste is wonderful.

How to Make Gingerbread Men - Step by Step Recipe

Firstly, I highly recommend you weigh out your ingredients using a digital kitchen scale. It couldn't be easier: it takes the maths out of baking and most importantly, ensures consistent successful results each time.

As in all my recipes here in France, I use grams. I include ounces and in some recipes cups, although I add these purely as an approximate guide as they are not as precise a measurement.

Cream together the butter and sugar using a stand mixer. If you don't have one, mix together using a wooden spoon.

Once the mix is light and creamy, add the egg (chef Lacote specifies only 35g which is the equivalent of a small egg) then gradually add in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and gingerbread spice (quatre épices).
Gingerbread spice: If you don't have this, then Allspice is closest - otherwise I give details in the recipe below how to make your own.

As the mix comes together (don't be afraid if it looks dry, it's normal - it will come together in the end), add the grated lime zest.

Film the dough and leave in the fridge for 24 hours.

Baking Them

Next day, the dough is ready. Take out the fridge for a few minutes to make it easier to roll out then cut out desired shapes. Once baked and cooled they are ready to decorate.

Working the Dough

Citrus isn't normally an ingredient used in traditional French gingerbread but after experimenting with this, we wouldn't have it any other way. The family love these green flecks of delicious lime zest.

What's more, the gingerbread men dough's consistency is so easy to work with, there is no need to flour the working station.

Decorating Gingerbread Men

Each Christmas, my girls have so much fun decorating gingerbread men and women and each year they get funnier and cheekier. Add other shapes such as snowmen, Christmas trees and snowflakes and let your creativity reign (deer oh dear - another pun).

How to Decorate using Cookie Icing

The easiest way to decorate gingerbread men is with white icing cookie decorating pens. Known as 'stylos glaçage' in France, they're available in most good specialist baking shops (DecoRelief, Mora, Wilton, etc.). Normal food ink pens (black) are good but we discovered that they use up quickly. For best results and value, use icing pens.

For the more mad creatives, go with white, red and brown icing pens.
To use icing pens at their best, follow the packet instructions: first heat them in a tumbler of very hot water and thereafter it's easy.

Halloween Gingerbread Cookies

Somehow, this theme is popular with the kids each year: Halloween gingerbread cookies! Here are a few ideas:

• Break off a leg, have a nimble and created a severed leg effect with red food colouring
• Create a skeleton design with white icing
• Just create a few looking sad or opened mouths with the icing

Use them to decorate our favourite French chocolate cake or the chocolate almond cake (Reine de Saba). A severed leg looks even more dramatic on an iced cake; add a little more lime zest to the glaze to bring out the wonderful flavours.

French Gingerbread Cookies for Bastille Day

I was wondering why Lucie was putting together a French flag with a cocktail stick, stickers and pens. It was for her patriotic Marianne. Do you recognise her? Eugène Delacroix could have been a proud French cookie!

Ideal for Bastille Day celebrations.

How Long do Gingerbread Cookies last?

These Gingerbread cookies last for up to a week.

Ensure to store them in a sealed tin box to retain their crispiness all week. It's best not to leave the cookies out overnight, as they will gradually lose their irresistible crunch.

Gingerbread Cookies or French Speculoos Biscuits

Yield is for about 60 gingerbread cookies using a 14cm cutter. As we used various shapes and sizes, our yield was 40 cookies. Great holiday food gifts.