My Dad’s wife, Bonnie makes delicious Christmas cookies…delicious. She puts so much detail into rolling, making homemade icing, and decorating. In the past years she has sent my children these adorable Gingerbread boys and girls and has even attached ribbon to the tops so we could hang them on our tree! This year, I just had to ask her for her recipe and she gladly obliged! She has been using Paula Deen’s, which was no surprise to me (Paula knows her stuff!) So, here we go with a step-by-step tutorial!
If you are a homeschooler or if your children are off school for Christmas -these cookies are a must to make with them…sweet memories.
Cream together brown sugar and butter with a mixer in a medium mixing bowl.
Add eggs and molasses and blend until just combined.
In another bowl combine flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.
Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until incorporated. Gather up dough in a ball and wrap it in plastic wrap. Stick it in the fridge for 3 hours or until well chilled.
Ready to roll! Because I was making 8 different kinds of cookie dough, I had to put labels on them so I wouldn’t get confused. I made all the doughs up one day -wrapped them and let them chill in the refrigerator over night- the next day I rolled and baked them all.
Place plenty of flour on a hard/flat surface. Take a large handful of dough and form it into a ball-the warmth from your hands will cause it to soften. Flour your rolling pin and place some flour on the top of your dough ball. Roll it out until it’s about 1/4 of an inch thick (I like a thicker cookie). Use a cookie cutter of your choice (I used boys and girls). Gather up scraps into a ball and repeat (you won’t hurt the dough a bit).
Line cookie sheets with parchment paper (I LOVE this stuff!-I buy two rolls during December and use every bit). Bake in a 350 oven for 10 mins. These cookies do not spread much, so you can place them a little closer together than most cookies. Cool on wire racks.
To make the icing: Add confectioners sugar with milk -you may color if you wish with food coloring. Place in a small sandwich bag and clip the end. You may use fancy shmancy decorators and/or decorator throwaways that you can purchase in the baking aisle at the grocery store.
| Classic Gingerbread Cookies |
Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Total time: 40 mins
Serves: 18
Paula Deen’s Recipe (adapted)
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1 stick butter or margarine, softened
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting work surface
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Icing:
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- 1 to 2 tablespoons milk
- Food coloring, as desired
Instructions
- Using an electric mixer at low speed, cream the sugar and butter until thoroughly combined.
- Add the eggs and molasses and mix until combined.
- Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and combine with a spoon or spatula.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and wrap in plastic wrap; place in the refrigerator until firm (I refrigerate over night, but 3 hours would be just fine)
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Take about 1/2 cup of dough at a time shape into a ball with your hands-it will soften.
- Roll onto a floured board until about 1/4 inch thick.
- Cut out with gingerbread boy and girl cookie cutters.
- You can re-roll the scraps.
- Using a spatula, transfer the cookies from the board to the prepared cookie sheets.
- Bake for 10 minutes, until just beginning to brown at the edges. Transfer to wire racks to cool.
- To make the icing, combine the confectioners’ sugar and milk
Notes
The recipe above was doubled in photos.
Looks so yummy! Thanks for sharing…
Happy Holidays,
jennifer
Looks delicious! Do you have recipes for the other cookies pictured here?
Yes, under seasonal and dessert!
Thank you!
Yummmm! These look so good!
Are these soft cookies or hard?
They are a firm/soft cookie…as opposed to a gooey soft. They are not crunchy.