#47: Gingerbread Cookies

I love gingerbread. Or I did... in gingerbread lattes. I've never been a big fan of the treat itself, as usually whenever I did come across gingerbread it was stale or had chunks of actual ginger in it (and I'm sorry, but I usually hate chunks of ANYTHING in my pastries). The reason for this particular recipe actually started WAY BACK in April, when I first came up with the idea for this blog. After sharing my blog with Stephen's mom, she immediately turned to me, and with all seriousness in her voice said "You NEED to make gingerbread!" Now, I've never heard a request like that, but with my willingness to take on any sort of project, I agreed. With it being December, there is no better time, especially considering I found a recipe that AGAIN is all over Pinterest... and this is actually a really good recipe, no fooling. I'll admit though, rolling out cookie dough, remembering to dust EVERYTHING with flour to avoid stick... age, and then waiting to frost and decorate everything is TEDIOUS. I might just stick to pre-made dough for these sort of projects, ugh.

#47: Gingerbread Cookies (as found on  meetthedubiens.blogspot.com)


Ingredients: 


1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup molasses
1 egg
4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg


Directions:


1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Stir in molasses and egg.
     - Molasses is GROSS. I didn't realize that until this recipe, because you use a ton of it. Even the sugar didn't help the taste... nothing like pouring tar into your cookie batter, yeah?

Yeah, that's tar! ... molasses!

Nope, not any better.

2. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg; blend into the molasses mixture until smooth. Cover, and chill for at least one hour.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or not).

4. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.
     - Okay, PLEASE, use tons of flour. Seriously. More frustration came from forgetting to dust everything EVERY TIME I rolled anything out, or cut anything, than anything else in this recipe. Seriously.

5. Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until firm. Let cool for 10 minutes on pan. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks.

Cute? Yeah... they are.

6. Frost or decorate when cool.


Easy enough, but oh holy night, SO TIME CONSUMING. Ahhhh!! Mothers Baird better be pleased.