Gingerbread Cookies

Over the weekend Miss A and I did some baking. Our sweet neighborhood had a caroling event, complete with hot chocolate and cookies at the end of the night. While I would  have loved to go, I figured taking Miss A out in the cold, by ourselves, at night, might not be such a good idea (hopefully next year my husband will have the night off!) Even still, I never pass up a chance to bake Christmas cookies, and signed up right away.

We made gingerbread cookies, using all my Christmas cookie cutters. Can you believe there wasn't a gingerbread man cutter in my set? I'll have to pick one up for next year!

Miss A was much more interested in the cookie cutters themselves instead of trying to help Mama. She took them in and out of the container, "counting", one at a time. When she was bored of that, she played with her own ball of dough and I'm happy to report she only tried to eat it once!

For the icing, I found this amazing little pouch at Aldi, with a spout, and it is one of the best baking items I've ever purchased. It made frosting the cookies SO easy. No mess with powered sugar, no stress over overdoing the frosting. I lined the cookies with the icing and then spread a little more in the center and used a butter knife to fill in the rest. Then I sprinkled the cookies with green and red sprinkles. After about 4 hours, the frosting has set, and you can stack the cookies!

I found this recipe in a magazine a few weeks ago, but can't remember which one. So forgive me for not having the source. A word of caution- this makes A LOT of cookies. I cut the entire recipe in half, but included the original for you here.

Gingerbread Cookies
Serves: 8 dozen

1 1lb box of dark brown sugar
3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup molasses
2 large eggs, at room temperature
6 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp ginger
1 1/2 tsp all-spice
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Combine sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer. Beat until combined. Add the molasses and eggs, one at a time.

In another bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing at a very low speed. You might need to use your hands to help the dough form. Once the dough comes together, it will be very thick. Divide dough into four parts and wrap each with plastic wrap.

Preheat the oven to 375. On a lightly floured surface, roll-out one portion of dough to 1/4 inch thickness. I had to knead my dough a bit before I could roll out it. You might need to add more flour if the dough is too sticky. Cut out shapes and place on a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper. Make sure cookies are 1 inch apart and bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool completely before removing cookies from the pan. Decorate as desired.

Happy Baking!