Gingerbread Cookies

I have cookie cutters for 2 holidays, Christmas/Hanukkah and Easter, so I usually make sugar cookies and decorate them twice a year.  

This year, ever since Starbucks started making gingerbread lattes pre-Thanksgiving, I have been craving gingerbread cookies.  So, when I realized gingerbread cookies would be just as good for decorating as sugar cookies, I was set.

Gingerbread Cookies (recipe from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book)

1/3 cup shortening or butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 1/2 cups dark molasses

2/3 cup cold water

7 cups Flour

2 tsp soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cloves

1 tsp cinnamon

Icing

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tablespoon milk

I halved the recipe, which I have been doing a lot recently, and it still made about 3 dozen cookies.  Plenty for us and some co-workers.

I got all the ingredients ready.

First, mix together the butter, brown sugar and molasses

Then add the water and mix

Sift the dry ingredients.  I use a sieve since I don't have a flour sifter.

Then, slowly add the dry ingredients to the batter until well mixed.

Once the batter is finished, cool in the fridge.  I package the dough the same way I did with my pie dough and put in the refrigerator.  Let it chill for at least 30 minutes.

While the dough is chilling, turn the oven on to 350 degrees.  After 30 minutes, remove the dough from the refrigerator.  Roll dough to 1/4" thick.  Then use your seasonal cookie cutters to cut.  I decided to only use the driedel and candy cane to keep it simple.

Leave a little room in between each cookie so they don't stick together.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until you can lightly press your finger and no print is left

While the cookies cool, you can get the icing prepared.  I have plastic piping bags, and piping tips.  So I got 4 bags ready to go.

Then I mixed the powdered sugar, vanilla and milk together until smooth.

I took half the icing and made it red.  Then the other half and made it blue.

I made another batch of icing and omitted the vanilla, so it would be white.  I wanted to keep the icing simple too and thought it would be cool to have white and red Christmas cookies and blue and white Hanukkah cookies

Then we decorated.  Can you tell what sheet is mine and what one is Brian's? He didn't get the memo on the specific colors for each shape....

Viola!  Cute, fun holiday cookies