You’ll Be Chasing This Gingerbread Man

I am invited to a cookie exchange, and these gingerbread cookies are the cookies I’ll be bringing to the party.  This is the gingerbread dough I make every year, now my 10-year-old even mixes the dough,  because it is always consistently easy to work with.  The dough never sticks, rarely requires a dusting of flour, and the cookie cutters slide in and out of the dough perfectly.  Now, you can get out those intricately-shaped cutters. Of course, these gingerbread cookies taste great too.

Here’s the recipe:

Gingerbread, for 60 4×6″ cookies.

• 4 eggs
• 1.5 cups light brown sugar
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened (or use 1 stick butter, 1/2 cup canola oil)
• 1 cup unsulphured molasses
• 7 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger (from your freezer!)
• 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 4 teaspoons crystallized ginger

Method:

1. In a large bowl, beat the eggs, adding sugar, butter, (oil, if using), and molasses. Beat until creamy and fluffy.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients.  Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet and beat until well blended.
3. Cover the dough and refrigerate at least overnight.
4. When ready to cut, bring the dough to warm up a bit before rolling.
5. Preheat oven to 320 degrees F.
6. Roll the dough to 1/4 inch thick.
7. Cut cookies with a cookie cutter.
8. Place on baking sheet, and cook for 7 minutes.

If you are just as intimidated by Royal Icing and decorator’s tips as me, just pull out your sifter, and sprinkle powdered sugar over the cookies after they cool.

Of course, I let the kids help with the sprinkling… I ended up with snowdrifts instead of snowflakes.