Name: Soft Gingerbread Tile Cookies with Rum Butter Glaze
Yield: Makes 12–14 (depending on the size of stamp and cutter)
Ingredients: 6 tbsp (85 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature; 1/3 packed cup plus 2 tbsp (90 g) dark brown sugar; 1/4 cup (100 g) blackstrap molasses; 1 large egg yolk; 1 3/4 cups plus 2 tbsp (235 g) all-purpose flour, plus extra for pressing; 1 tbsp Dutch-processed cocoa powder; 1/2 tsp baking soda; 1 tsp ground ginger; 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon; 1/8 tsp ground cloves; 1/4 tsp salt; 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper; 2/3 cup (80 g) confectioners' sugar; 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon; 1 tbsp (15 g) unsalted butter, melted and warm; 1 tbsp dark rum (or lemon juice); 1 tsp warm water

Stamped gingerbread tiles with a rum butter glaze.

Photo by Peden + Munk

Helen has been slightly obsessed with these ever since she saw them on the front cover of the original Tartine baking book by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson. In the book, they used an antique embossed rolling pin to create the imprint before cutting them into rectangles; here, we use round cookie stamps for the imprint before cutting them out with a round cookie cutter. Once the glaze is applied, they really do look like antique tiles. Try and get ahold of some stamps if you can—they’re very popular in Scandinavian countries and can easily be bought online. If you can’t get any, the gingerbreads can also be made as regular cookies, using round cutters, or cut into squares or rectangles with a knife.

Cooks' Notes

If you want to keep the glaze booze-free, the rum in the icing can be replaced with lemon juice.