Gingerbread Cookies

Angela at Cottage Magpie is hosting a Virtual Cookie Exchange, so I thought I’d participate. It was good timing since we’d been planning to make Gingerbread Cookies this weekend.

As with all projects I attempt, this one was not without it’s glitches. I have never made them before without my mom so I was a little nervous. But I had my daughter, a self proclaimed future baker, to help me.

They turned out a-ok thanks to her!

Gingerbread cookies
What you’ll need:

• 8 cups sifted flour
• 3 teaspoons ginger
• 1 heaping teaspo0n cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups molasses
• 1 cup shortening
• 3 teaspoons baking soda
• 2/3 cup hot water
• 1 egg

What to do:

1. Combine flour ginger, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in center
2. Stir sugar and molasses
3. Add shortening. Pour in hot water combined with soda and mix.
4. Add egg. Stir until completely blended. Dough will be soft and sticky.
5. Chill thoroughly
6. Roll out onto floured pastry cloth or board to 1/4″ thick and cut with cookie cutters.
7. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes

At this point you can do lots of things with your cookies. You could sprinkle them with sugar and place a dab of jam on them. Or trim them in frosting. We dip ours in chocolate, then trim them with frosting and make little frosting dabbed belly buttons on the men, women and snowmen.

They’ve been dipped in chocolate and we’ll be frosting them tomorrow, I hope!