Posted By Ingrid Turner on Nov 21, 2013 in Baking, Christmas, Cookie Recipe, Desserts, Featured, Food Holidays, Holidays & Events, How To Cook, Sweets, Vegetarian | 0 comments

National Gingerbread Day is November 21st, and the most amazing aroma should be coming out of your kitchen with this Gingerbread Cookie recipe!

The smell of gingerbread is so enticing, you can hardly wait to devour it, and what smells more like Christmas baking?

Gingerbread Tips & Info:

Gingerbread dough can get a little heavy & dense if too much flour is incorporated into the dough. So, only add as much flour as absolutely necessary. Remember: You are also rolling out the dough and even more flour will be added from the bench flour you will use to keep it from sticking to your work surface.

After preparing the dough, wrap it in plastic wrap after halving the dough into 2 discs & allow them to stand for a couple of hours.

It can also be kept in the refrigerator for as long as 3 or 4 days.

If you keep it longer than the 2 or 3 hours prior to baking, allow the refrigerated dough to return to room temperature before baking.

Make sure that all ingredients are at room temperature before mixing your gingerbread dough.

How to Bake Gingerbread Cookies:

My recipe for gingerbread men, for instance, can also be used for cookies.
It’s best to use cookie cutters to form your cookies & men.
Gingerbread houses can be baked as long as 1 week before decorating.

Type: Cookie Recipe

Serve with: lemon glaze (recipe below)
Prep Time: 30 min
Refrigerator Time: 2 – 3 hrs
Bake Time: 8 – 10 min
Yields: 18 gingerbread men, 40 two-inch cookies, or one 5 x 7 inch gingerbread house + 12 cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup molasses – without sulphur
5 cups + 1/2 to 3/4 cup all purpose flour – plus bench flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Instructions:

In a saucepan, melt butter. Add in sugar & molasses and stir, making sure sugar gets completely dissolved before proceeding.
Remove from the heat and cool to lukewarm.
In a large mixing bowl, combine 5 cups all purpose flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon & nutmeg.
Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour lukewarm butter mixture in. Beat until blended completely.
Work in an additional 1/2 – 3/4 cup flour, not too much, until the dough balls up & loosens from the sides of the bowl.
Transfer dough to a work surface & knead a couple of times on the counter until it’s smooth & workable.
Separate dough into 2, and form into discs, by forming balls and flattening them.
Wrap in plastic & refrigerate until cooled, not icy cold. * Tip: After you remove dough from the fridge, if the dough is too soft to roll out, gently & sparingly work in a bit more flour until it is easier to roll out & handle.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Prepare cookie sheets by greasing them.
Roll out dough discs, 1 at a time to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out your men with a 4 – 5 inch cutter & place on sheets. * Tip: If you wish to hang cookies on a tree, cookies should be pierced with skewers in the proper location before & after baking.
Bake one sheet at a time until the edges have slightly become darkened – 8 – 10 min.
Remove from oven, and if desired, you can apply a lemon glaze (recipe below) while the cookies are still warm.
Remove from sheets after a few min & transfer to a cooling rack.
Proceed to decorate as desired.

How to Make Lemon Glaze:

This lemon glaze is to be applied to cookies while they are still on the cookie sheets, but hot from the oven. After waiting a few minutes while partly cooled, transfer cookies to a cooling rack.

This will give these cookies a slightly shiny crust & some extra sweetness.