Gingerbread cookies

OK, so the taffy experiments have not gone well.  They've been scrapped for the time being, so I needed a third item for the neighbor gifts.  A good idea was escaping me, so I started unpacking all of the Christmas decorations.  Along with all the boxes of ornaments, the intermingled and tangled strings of lights and strings of lights, we have some Christmas dinnerware and some holiday tableware.  Tings like tablecloths, placemats, etc.  And imprinted on one of them, a gingerbread man.  Why didn't I think about that before...

We've made a batch or two in the past to use as decorations on the Christmas tree.  And of course they didn't stay intact all the way to Christmas Day.  Having small children running around the house means that any type of candy or cookie left unguarded is fair game.  It was a horrific sight.  Cookie arms and legs torn off at random, gingerbread bodies broken in half... Even entire missing bodies, leaving the separated heads dangling from the decorative ribbon. 

But Sawyer's older and I think we can convince Wyatt to leave them alone long enough.  So we'll try it again, but in the meantime, we'll also make another batch to give away to the neighbors. 

The recipe is very similar to any other cookie recipe.  Just remember to work with the wet ingredients and sugars first, then move onto the dry ingredients.  If you wish to use them as ornaments for your tree, I've found that it you use a straw to poke a hole through the cookie near the top of the head before baking, you have a perfect place to loop some ribbon.  Just thread it through, tie it off, and then hang from the tree without a problem.

Gingerbread Cookies / Gingerbread Men

Makes 12 large, 24 small

1 stick butter, preferably at room temperature
1/4 cup butter flavored shortening
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ginger
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

Place the butter, shortening and brown sugar in a large mixer. Start on low until slightly incorporated, then crank it up to high for two minutes.  Add the egg and molasses and mix on medium high for 1 one minute.

In a separate bowl, add the flour, spices and salt into a bowl and mix well.  Slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, adding about 1/4 of the dry ingredients each time.  Mix for 30 seconds once everything is combined.  Remove from the mixing bowl, wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

Prepare you counter by liberally applying flour.  Remove the dough from the fridge and place half of it on the prepared surface.  Roll out the dough until it's between 1/8-1/4 inch thick, your preference.  Use your cookie cutters to make as many cookies as the space will allow.  Pull away the scraps and place the cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Then combine all the scraps, roll out again and continue to cut out cookies.  When you don't have enough for another cookie, add those scraps to the other half of the dough and repeat.  Cook the cookies in a 350 degree oven for 10-13 minutes.  Allow the cookies to cool before you try to add any frosting.

Once the cookies are completely cooled, you can move onto the frosting. 

Frosting

2 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Add all of the ingredients to a large mixer and turn on LOW SPEED.  DO NOT crank it up to high immediately, or if you are cooking with your kids, allow them to crank it up to high, lest you end up like this, covered in powdered sugar. 

Once it's thoroughly blended together, scoop out the frosting and drop it into a piping bag with any size tip you'd like.  I usually pipe out some eyes, a mouth and some buttons.  You can also add some candies if you want.  Just use the frosting as the glue to stick them into surface of the cookie.

So make a batch or two, hang them from the tree and see how many are left on Christmas Morning.