Gingerbread

This year was my first attempt at gingerbread cookies and I must say that I was pretty proud of myself!

I'm honestly not that crazy about gingerbread cookies because I often find them too "gingery" and fuh-lipping hard to bite into.

I found a few recipes online and after comparing notes I made a plan.

They were crunchy, but not over the top on the crunch scale, and I think the cocoa powder relaxed the ginger flavor a bit so you didn't feel like you were getting kicked in the face with a spicy stick.

Gingerbread Cookies

3 1/3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 tsp baking soda

1tbsp cinnamon

1 tbsp ground ginger

3/4 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cubed

1 egg 

3/4 cup molasses

Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, brown sugar, baking soda, and spices. Add butter cubes and mix until the mixture is sandy in texture. Whisk the egg and molasses together and add to the flour/butter mixture. Mix until completely combined.

Divide the dough in half, wrapping each half in plastic wrap and placing it in the fridge for about an hour, until it's firm enough to work with, without sticking to everything.

Working with one disk at a time, roll it out until about 1/4" thick. I find it easiest to do this between 2 sheets of plastic wrap (it sticks to the table so you don't have to fight with parchment/wax paper being pushed all over). Leaving the dough in the plastic wrap place it back into the fridge for a few hours until firm, or you could pop it into the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Working with 1 dough at a time, remove it from the fridge/freezer and peel off the top bit of plastic wrap, lightly place it back on top of the dough again and flip the dough over, pulling the other layer of plastic wrap off (loosening all the plastic wrap from the dough). Cut out your shapes and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet, baking for 10-15 minutes.

The colder the dough is when you bake it the more the original cut shape will remain (no drooping). You can tell when it's done by pushing slightly on the cookies, if your finger dent remains they are not quite done but if it slowly rises or "springs back" then they are done.

Let cool on the baking sheet about 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Roll the scraps back up and roll them back into a disk, throw it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes and start cutting out shapes again. Repeat until every last scrap of dough is baked!

Make up some royal icing and put it in squeezable bottles, line up the sprinkles and call the little ones in for a decorating extravaganza!

*recipe adapted from Good Life Eats