Christmas Tradition #8 - Gingerbread Cookies

It’s the last post before Christmas. Hard to believe it’s Christmas already this Monday. I am doing my usual holiday baking, making lots of cookies and cakes.

One tradition that we haven’t talked about yet is gingerbread. Whenever you think about gingerbread, you think about Christmastime. I used to make and decorate houses when I was little and always get a decorated gingerbread man with Smartie buttons and icing. I have to admit that I would usually bite off the icing bits and Smartie buttons and leave the rest for my mom, but they are a yummy treat for this time of year.

Last Christmas I made my very first batch of gingerbread men on my own. I found a really easy recipe that you can make ahead of time and freeze the dough for whenever you are ready to make some.

Take a look at the recipe below. You can bake them right away or like I said, you can make the dough and then bake them when you are ready which is what I did this time around.

Gingerbread Cookies

 3 cups of flour

¾ cup brown sugar

¾ tsp. baking soda

1 tbsp. cinnamon

1 tbsp. ground ginger

½ tsp. salt

12 tbsp. butter, softened

¾ cup molasses

2 tbsp. milk

Mix the dry ingredients together in the mixer bowl and then put it on “stir” to mix them all up.

  

Add the butter until it’s like sand.

With the mixer going, add the molasses and the milk. When the dough comes together, then it’s ready.

Pat into two separate balls and wrap in plastic wrap. You can let them sit in the fridge for about an hour or so and then roll them out and cut shapes or you can label then and place them in the freezer until you are ready to use them. If you plan to use them in the next day or so then you can leave them wrapped tightly in the fridge. 

If you are making them right away and have all your shapes cut out, then you can place them on a cookie sheet with parchment paper and bake for 8-11 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Let the cookies cool on wire racks.

You can decorate your cookies once they have cooled with candies and chocolate treats. Take a look at this post that we did for sugar cookies for Valentine’s Day and try using this same icing on your gingerbread cookies. http://paperwhitecreations.blogspot.ca/2014/02/valentine-baking.html

 

Enjoy your cookies and Merry Christmas!