I made these to decorate with Natalie and Emma…but they taste great plain too! Good recipe for gingerbread. I’ll post photos of the iced ones tomorrow.
Ingredients
For the cookies
3 cups flour, plus more as needed
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
10 tablespoons (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 ounces light or dark brown sugar
3/4 cup unsulfured molasses
2 tablespoons milk, at room temperature
Directions
Combine the flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt and baking soda in large bowl. Whisk to aerate and mix well.
Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer; beat on low speed, then on medium speed until well incorporated. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the molasses and milk; beat on low speed until incorporated.
Add the flour mixture in thirds, beating on low speed until well combined after the first two additions and stopping to scrape down the bowl after each addition. After the last of the flour is added, beat on low speed until just incorporated. The dough will pull away from the sides of the bowl and be soft yet very pliable.
Prepare 6 sheets of parchment paper about 18 by 13 inches (baking sheet size). Divide the dough into thirds; place each portion of dough between two sheets of the parchment; roll the dough to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Freeze for at least 1 hour before cutting the cookies.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees, with racks positioned in the upper and lower middle of the oven. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.
Working with one portion of dough at a time (while the other two remain in the freezer), peel away both sides of parchment paper, but lay the dough back down on one piece of the parchment. Cut the cookies while the dough is frozen and position them on the parchment-lined baking sheets. If the dough defrosts too much to easily move cookies that have been cut out, replace the top sheet of parchment and refreeze until the dough is easy to work with. Do that as many times as needed; scraps can be re-rolled twice. Use all of the dough.
Bake the cookies on the upper and lower racks for 9 to 10 minutes, then rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes, until the cookies have browned but do not appear to be burned on the bottoms; a few minutes after you rotate the baking sheets, check the smaller-size cookies for doneness, removing any that might be done sooner. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Follow up – Decorating cookies was fun! The girls did a great job!
