Friday, December 1, 2006

Gingerbread Cookies

As promised, I'm reporting in on making gingerbread cookies with my daughter. We made the dough on Wednesday so it could chill (recipe follows). Then we spent a wonderful afternoon on Thursday making gingerbread cookies with a few friends. We used our gingerbread boy and girl cutters and a few holiday ones too. The girls cut out a few cookies each then sat down with their creations at a table filled with sugar, sprinkles, red hots, raisins and other decorative treats. They had a blast. Though the cookie decorating did dissolve into licking up the colored sugar from their plates. We made several pans of cookies, and they all turned out perfectly so the recipe is definitely a keeper. It comes from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion which I highly recommend to anyone who loves to make cookies.

Gingerbread Cookies

3/4 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup molasses
1 tsp salt
2t cinnamon
2t ground ginger
1/4t ground cloves
1 egg
1t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I found the dough a little too thin and added 2 more tablespoons of flour)

1) Put butter and next six ingredients in a saucepan and cook over low heat until butter is melted. Pour into a mixing bowl (I used the one for my stand mixer) and allow to cool to room temperature.
2) Add egg and combine. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined (use the loweset setting if using a stand mixer).
3) Divide dough in half, form into flattened balls, cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

*I apparently got distracted and left you hanging on the instructions. Here are the rest.

4) Roll out the chilled dough and cut into gingerbread men or any other shape you like. Decorate with candies, sugar, raisins, red hots, etc.
5) Bake 8-10 minutes at 375F.
6) Cool on a wire rack and ice if desired.

Enjoy!

2 comments:

Anne D said...

Temp?

Oh and FYI, if you are thinking of making Silvia's previous gingerbread cake recipe, don't, and don't what ever you do make it then eat it while its still warm, and DONT, I repeat DONT pour yourself a glass of milk to wash the glorious, scrumptious, yummyness down with - your hips will thank you for it!

(I still have half a pan...it's still warm...DAMN make that 1/4 of a pan...need..more..milk!)

Silvia Violet said...

LOL Anne! I hope the rest of that pan was delicious :)

You bake the cookies at 375F. I went back and actually finished the directions. I don't know what happened but I must have gotten called away and not realized I wasn't finished writing!