Gingerbread Cookies

Gingerbread Cookies: Thankful Hearts

These warm, delicious, gingerbread cookies will fill your kitchen with the cozy scents of the season. Rolled thin for a crisper texture, or rolled a little thicker for more of a cake-like feel, Gingerbread Cookies will add the perfect touch to your winter baking.

Gingerbread Cookies  Printable Recipe
Makes about 32 assorted-size cookies
These cookies have a sweet, mild, flavor that children love. 

Ingredients:
2 and 3/4 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ginger
1 and 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup brown light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup molasses
parchment paper
sugar cookie dough
red food coloring

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
2. Using a stand mixer on low, beat the butter and sugar together until smooth and well combined. Beat in egg until combined, and then molasses.
3. Add the flour mixture, about a third at a time, scraping sides of the bowl as necessary, until well-combined.
4. Divide the dough into thirds, and wrap in plastic wrap or place in lightly greased zip lock bags. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight, if possible. The colder the dough is, the easier it is to work with, and the longer it rests in the fridge, the better the flavors can blend and develop.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly flour a sheet of parchment paper the size of your cookie sheet. Using a very well-floured rolling pin, roll part of the cold dough out onto the sheet of parchment paper to about 1/8" thick (the thinner you roll the dough, the better the cookies will hold their detail). Using cookie cutters dipped in flour, cut cookies about an inch apart. Gently peel the excess dough away from the cut cookies and set excess dough aside to re-roll. Slide parchment paper with cookies onto cookie sheet.
6. Bake cookies for about 11 to 12 minutes or until just beginning to very lightly brown. Let cookies cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then remove cookies to cooling rack until completely cool.
7. While one pan of cookies bakes, you can prepare the next pan for baking. Always return any dough you're not using at the moment to the fridge to keep it cold. Once the dough gets warm, it softens and is harder to work with. It's better to keep the dough cold than to add a lot of flour.
8. Store cookies in an airtight container, and they will keep well for several days. These freeze well, too. 

To make the hearts: I used purchased refrigerated sugar cookie dough. Cut off a few inches of dough and place on a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle dough liberally with flour and knead in until well mixed. Knead in a few drops of red food coloring until it is the desired shade. Again, keep this dough refrigerated until needed, and in between rollings.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to 1/8" (or thickness of your gingerbread cookies). Cut heart shapes with a small cookie cutter. Using the same heart cookie cutter, cut hearts out of the house-shaped gingerbread cookies and remove. Carefully place the sugar cookie heart into the gingerbread cookie and bake. This goes more easily if the dough is very cold.

You could bake the gingerbread hearts into small cookies, but I just rolled them back into the gingerbread dough.

Here are more ways to use the Gingerbread Cookies recipe:

 Ginger Cookies with Tea

Cookies for Santa!

Gingerbread Cookies may have been taken to some of these great parties! 

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