Finnish gingerbread cookies using rye flour (Piparkakut)

Crispy and spicy Finnish gingerbreads are a must for wintertime, especially on the Christmas table. This old-fashioned gingerbread recipe combines rye flour with wheat flour to add extra flavor.

Finnish rye gingerbread cookies baked on the oven pan and out rolled dough with a few heart-shaped cookies cut with a heart cookie cutter.

Gingerbreads are the perfect treat to bake with the little ones and you can make mounds of gingerbread biscuits to fill the cookie jar with. Try out also my orange gingerbread cookie recipe with orange zest, if you love that zesty flavor! I bake several batches of gingerbreads during the holiday season to have a continual stock of gingerbreads. Gingerbreads cannot run out at Christmas time! Attach gingerbreads with a red yarn as a perfect edible gift for Christmas Eve. For more edible gift ideas check out my inspiration post on the different ideas for handmade natural gifts.

Tips for making Finnish gingerbread cookies with rye flour

  • Make the dough one or even two to three days in advance to cool down in the fridge for easier baking.
  • If you want extra crispy gingerbread cookies, roll the dough on the parchment paper to get super thin gingerbread cookies without worrying about how to lift them on the oven pan without tearing.
  • Prick the uncooked gingerbread cookies with a fork to let the steam escape and get thin crispy biscuits that are evenly cooked.
Rolled Finnish gingerbread dough with rye flour on the wooden surface with some cut flower-shaped gingerbread cookies.

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Ingredients you need for rye gingerbread cookies

Ingredients for Finnish gingerbreads with rye flour (Butter, dark syrup, caster sugar, cinnamon, clove powder, ginger, black pepper, eggs, rye flour, wheat flour, and baking soda) ready measured in different bowls on a wooden surface.
  • Butter. If you want dairy-free gingerbreads, butter can be substituted with margarine, but notice that a dough made with butter keeps stiffer longer (aka easier to bake and shape cookies) than dough using margarine.
  • Caster sugar, you can use either white sugar or brown sugar. I have used white caster sugar in this recipe.
  • Dark syrup
  • Cinnamon powder
  • Ginger powder
  • Clove powder
  • Black pepper, crushed
  • Eggs
  • Rye flour
  • Wheat flour
  • Baking soda

You can find the exact measurements on the recipe card.

Tools you may need

  • Large pot (1,5 L)
  • Medium-sized bowl
  • Measuring spoons and scale
  • Ball whisk
  • Freezer bag or cling film
  • Rolling pin
  • Cookie cutters
  • Oven pan and parchment paper


How to make Finnish gingerbread cookies using rye flour

Step one: Make the rye gingerbread dough base

Cut butter into cubes for faster melting and add it into the pot with caster sugar, dark syrup, and spices. Let the butter melt with medium heat and use a ball whisk to combine the ingredients. Take off the stove and let the mixture cool down. 

Dark syrup, caster sugar, gingerbread spices in a pot with butter that a woman is stirring in to melt it.

Once it has cooled add the eggs whisking them in one by one. If you whisk the eggs in too early you will get scrambled eggs, so be patient.

Mix rye flour, wheat flour, and baking soda in a separate bowl. Add the flour mixture to the pot gradually and combine with the dough base using the ball whisk. You can use as well a stand mixer, but this is quite effortless dough so just with a hand whisk you will be fine.

Step two: Let the dough rest in a cool place

Spoon the cookie dough into a freezer bag tap it flat and close the bag well. You can also use plastic wrap or just cover the pot and refrigerate the dough like that, but I have noticed that the dough is easier to work with when it is better sealed and flattened ready to ease the rolling. 

Keep the gingerbread dough in the refrigerator overnight or at least 8 hours to let it cool and stiffen. During that time the flavor of the dough deepens as well, so I beg you: do not skip this part!

Step three: Rolling and cutting the gingerbread cookies

Take the dough out of the fridge and cut it in half. Put the other half back in the fridge and keep it covered while you start working with the first batch. Set the oven to 175°C (347°F).

On a lightly floured surface roll the dough out using the rolling pin. Try to roll it as thin as possible. If you want thin crispy gingerbread cookies, you can roll the dough directly on the top of parchment paper to avoid gingerbreads tearing up when moving them to the baking pan. 

Use cookie cutters of several sizes and shapes to make a fun and unique mixture of gingerbread cookies to fill your charming old biscuit tins. Just make sure that all the gingerbread cookies in the same oven pan are the same size to cook them evenly. Over the past years, I have fallen in love with cookie cutters like simple hearts in various sizes and star-shaped ones.

A woman holding a heart-shaped medium sized gingerbread cookie between her fingers.

Step four: Baking the rye gingerbreads

Prick the uncooked gingerbread cookies with a fork to let the steam escape and get the perfectly crispy, evenly cooked gingerbreads. Bake in the oven in the middle grid for 6 to 10 minutes. The bigger the gingerbreads are the longer you need to let them bake and vice versa. 

I had these, my medium-sized gingerbreads perfectly baked with 8 minutes of baking time in my oven.

Make a ball of the cutting scraps of the dough return the dough to the fridge work with the next batch of the dough as above and repeat. Rotate always so that the remaining dough returns to the fridge until you have finished all your gingerbread cookie dough. I normally start already baking the gingerbreads while still working with the remaining dough to get the baking process rolling. I use three oven pans to ease the workload: one is next to me to place cookies that I have just cut on them, one is in the oven baking, and the third is on the stovetop cooling down with baked cookies. 

Baked Finnish gingerbread cookies on an oven pan and out-rolled gingerbread dough with a heart-shaped cookie cutter on a wooden surface next to the oven pan.

Serving and decorating the gingerbreads

If you want to decorate the gingerbread cookies, use royal icing to make some fancy icing decorations, dip them into chocolate, or dust some icing sugar on them. Traditional Finnish gingerbread cookies are best enjoyed plain with a cup of coffee the Nordic way or dunked into a hot chocolate.

Storage

Finnish gingerbreads with rye will keep good for a few weeks in an airtight container. Tough in our family they really do not last long in our cookie jar for it is empty always within the first week for sure!

Little Helper

Making the dough itself is so fast that I do it mostly in the evening without a little chef’s help, but the moment to roll and make the cookies! Give your little one a piece of dough for them to roll, if you have a true little baker like ours, invest in a tiny rolling pin to give your helper plenty of joy!

Follow your child and see what part is their favorite. If they love just rolling the dough, let them keep rolling it again and again while you are finishing cutting the cookies. If cutting the gingerbread cookies is what they love, roll a big dough over your work surface cut together the cookies, and have fun with the different shapes.

We have a box of different-shaped cookie cutters, that we use only for gingerbread cookies during Christmas time.
We love to take it out once a year and just enjoy the moment with the gingerbread dough and elephant-shaped cookie cutter or footprint-shaped one!

A little girl with a rolling pin in her hand and some gingerbread cookie dough. On the table some rolled dough with cut flower shaped Finnish gingerbread cookies.

What are your best gingerbread memories? 

Let me know in the comments your best gingerbread baking memories or tag me with @blue.tea.tile and show your moments!

Looking for other winter bakes and Christmas cookies?

Try out these Nordic recipes for winter time:

You can find the recipe card below!

Baked and unbaked Finnish gingerbread cookies on a wooden surface with a wooden rolling pin.

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Baked Finnish gingerbread cookies on an oven pan and out-rolled gingerbread dough with a heart-shaped cookie cutter on a wooden surface next to the oven pan.

Finnish gingerbread cookies using rye flour

Yield: 30-40
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Rest Time: 8 hours
Baking: 10 minutes
Total Time: 8 hours 20 minutes

Crispy and spicy Finnish gingerbreads are a must for wintertime, especially on the Christmas table. This old-fashioned gingerbread recipe combines rye flour with wheat flour to add extra flavor.

Ingredients

  • 150 g butter
  • 100 g caster sugar
  • 150 g dark syrup
  • 2 tsp cinnamon powder
  • 2 tsp ginger powder
  • 1/2 tsp clove powder
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper, crushed
  • 2 eggs

Flour mixture

  • 170 g rye flour
  • 170 g wheat flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda

Instructions

    1. Step one: Make the rye gingerbread dough base
      Cut butter into cubes for faster melting and add it into the pot with caster sugar, dark syrup, and spices. Let the butter melt with medium heat and use a ball whisk to combine the ingredients. Take off the stove and let the mixture cool down.

      Once it has cooled add the eggs whisking them in one by one. If you whisk the eggs in too early you will get scrambled eggs, so be patient.

      Mix rye flour, wheat flour, and baking soda in a separate bowl. Add the flour mixture to the pot gradually and combine with the dough base using the ball whisk.
    2. Step two: Let the dough rest in a cool place
      Spoon the cookie dough into a freezer bag tap it flat and close the bag well. You can also use plastic wrap or just cover the pot and refrigerate the dough like that, but I have noticed that the dough is easier to work with when it is better sealed and flattened ready to ease the rolling.

      Keep the gingerbread dough in the refrigerator overnight or at least 8 hours to let it cool and stiffen.
    3. Step three: Rolling and cutting the gingerbread cookies
      Take the dough out of the fridge and cut it in half. Put the other half back in the fridge and keep it covered while you start working with the first batch. Set the oven to 175°C (347°F).

      On a lightly floured surface roll the dough out using the rolling pin. Try to roll it as thin as possible. If you want extra crispy gingerbreads, you can roll the dough directly on the top of parchment paper to avoid gingerbreads tearing up when moving them to the baking pan.
    4. Step four: Baking the rye gingerbreads
      Prick the uncooked gingerbread cookies with a fork to let the steam escape and get the perfectly crispy, evenly cooked gingerbreads. Bake in the oven in the middle grid for 6 to 10 minutes. The bigger the gingerbreads are the longer you need to let them bake and vice versa.

      Make a ball of the cutting scraps of the dough return the dough to the fridge work with the next batch of the dough as above and repeat. Rotate always so that the remaining dough returns to the fridge until you have finished all your gingerbread cookie dough.

      Serving and decorating
      If you want to decorate the gingerbread cookies, use royal icing to make some fancy icing decorations, dip them into chocolate, or dust some icing sugar on them. Traditional Finnish gingerbread cookies are best enjoyed plain with a cup of coffee the Nordic way or dunked into a hot chocolate.

    Storage
    Finnish gingerbreads with rye will keep good for a few weeks in an airtight container. Tough in our family they really do not last long in our cookie jar for it is empty always within the first week for sure!


Notes

For more guidance look for the header "Tips for making Finnish gingerbread cookies with rye flour" on the post.
For tips on how to bake with a child, look for an info box with the header "Little Helper".

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 30 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 108Total Fat: 5gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 23mgSodium: 82mgCarbohydrates: 16gFiber: 1gSugar: 6gProtein: 2g

These calculations are generated automatically by Nutritionix based on the ingredients shown in the recipe. The nutrition information is an estimation and may include errors. All nutritional information presented and written within this site (blueteatile.com) is intended for informational purposes only. The writer is not a certified nutritionist or registered dietitian and any nutritional information should be used as a general guideline only.

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