Gingerbread Cookies, How To Make Gingerbread Cookies, Cookie Recipes, Christmas Cookie Recipes, Peggy Weaver

Gingerbread Cookies

Peggy says, "I made the three cookie cutters for these little guys. They are about 5 1/2-inches tall. The gingerbread houses are about 4 x 4 inches. My husband says that these cookies are the modern version of the Gingerbread Man."

Gingerbread Cookies

4 ounces butter
4 ounces Crisco vegetable shortening
3/4 cup lightly-packed brown sugar
1/2 cup unsulphured molasses*
1 large egg
3 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon brown food coloring **

* NOTE: You can substitute Kings Syrup or Treacle for the unsulphured molasses in the Gingerbread Cookie Recipe if you want a lighter colored cookie.

** Can be purchased at most craft stores.

Preheat oven to 350° F. Line two c ookie sheets with parchment paper and spray lightly with pan coating.

Cream the butter with flat paddle attachment of electric mixer on high speed about 3 minutes or until soft. Beat in sugar; continue beating for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in molasses and then beat in egg, scraping down bowl once or twice.

Sift together flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in three batches, mixing just until each batch is blended. Shape into a large flat ball by hand, kneading a few times until smooth. Shape into two disks (6-inch by 9-inch). Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours or until firm enough to roll out. Overnight is best.

Using a r olling pin, roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to 3/16" thickness. Cut out shapes as desired using either a gingerbread person shape or any other cookie cutter of your choice. Transfer to cookie sheets using a broad-angled spatula, leaving at least 1 inch between cookies. Place similar sized cookies on the same cookie sheets. To make hanging ornaments, punch holes in the tops of the shapes with a straw.

Bake for 9 1/2 to12 minutes depending on size, rotating pans front to back once during baking. They should just begin to brown around the edges and feel firm to the touch. Remove from oven and cool pans on wire racks for a few minutes; transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.

Let cookie sheets cool completely before proceeding with next batch; you may reuse the parchment. Store in airtight container at room temperature for up to two weeks or freeze for up to one month. Decorate as you desire with Royal Icing.

Royal Icing

I chose this recipe because I can get Just Whites at my market. I had problems getting the Meringue Powder that is recommended in many recipes. Raw Egg Whites is not advised to use these days. - Peggy

Warning: Any grease will break down icing. Remember if the icing is too dry, add water a few drops at a time. If icing is too moist, add more powdered sugar. It's as simple as that.

1 pound fondant or powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter
5 1/4 teaspoons Egg White/Meringue Powder
6 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a large mixing bowl, stir together powdered sugar, cream of tartar, and Egg White Powder. Add water and vanilla extract; beat at low speed until sugar is dissolved, then at high speed about 10 minutes or until mixture is light and fluffy (icing must hold its shape before using). Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth to prevent drying.

I spooned 1/2 of this Royal Icing mixture into a 10-inch piping bag fitted with a #2 tip. I liked putting a "Chip Clip" on the top of the bag to keep it closed and twisting the bag to get the icing to flow. By twisting, I used a lot less hand pressure and didn't tire out so easily. Put the piping bag tip side down in a glass that has a damp paper towel in the bottom. This will keep the icing hardening up like cement while you attend to other life duties.
To the second 1/2 of the Royal Icing, I added water, a teaspoon at a time, and mixed well until the consistency of heavy whipping cream. Then I poured it into a squeezable bottle with a cap and stored the bottle upside down in a glass. I outlined the cookie with the pastry bag and let them sit for a few minutes, Then flood the icing from the squeeze bottle, with a back and forth motion over the whole area. If necessary use a knife to smooth all over the cookie and a toothpick comes in handy for getting rid of tiny bubbles and filling little holes. Set aside and let dry overnight.

Next day, pipe your designs. I had eight drawings of patterns that I made up, so I taped them on my dish closet door right in front of my face for fast reference. The drawing were the basic idea and every cookie ended up with different points, curls, swirls and dots. Let dry overnight then package.

Striding Horses Cookies

"This horse is called a Striding Horse by the Carousel folks. The cookie is about 8 inches by 6 inches. It's big enough that most kids (even the grown up ones) are happy! I'm planning on doing a series (possible five) of animals based on the antique Carousel Animals.

I make my own cookie cutters using a coil of copper 1-inch wide. - Peggy

Use either the Gingerbread Cookie Recipe or the Sugar Cookie Recipe that is posted on the Snowflake Cookie page.

NOTE: You can substitute Kings Syrup or Treacle for the unsulphured molasses in the Gingerbread Cookie Recipe if you want a lighter colored cookie.

Make cookie dough according to directions of the recipe your choose.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Place a sheet of parchment paper on the counter. NOTE: I precut it so that it will fit on the jelly roll pan without curling up (this allows the baking cookie to lay totally flat).

Using a r olling pin, roll the dough on the parchment paper to between 1/8-inch and 3/16-inch thickness. Use a little flour/powdered sugar combination, if necessary, to help prevent sticking.

Scoot a spatula under the dough, all the way around, so that you're sure it isn't sticking to the parchment.

Cut out the cookie with your cookie cutters and remove the excess dough.

Place the parchment with the cut-out cookie on a c ookie sheet or a jelly roll pan. If possible, place cookie on the pan so the feet are away from the edge and placed toward the center. This will help keep from over cooking the delicate legs. NOTE: It's best if you bake one or two big cookies at a time. Place two cookies on the same pan - but please, no more (you don't want to "crowd" the heat in the oven, as you want a good heat/air flow).

Refrigerate the cookie (on the baking sheet) until well chilled, approximately 20 to 30 minutes.

When ready to bake, place on the middle oven shelf of the preheated oven. Bake 12 1/2 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool on a wire cooling rack for 2 to 3 minutes.

Carefully pick up the parchment paper with the cookies, and place it on a rack to cool completely.

Make Royal Icing with Egg white Powder. NOTE: It is best if the icing is made and allowed to sit for at least an hour. Stir again and then place in separate bowls for coloring as needed.

For the outline thickness, use this test. Dribble a thin line of the icing on the table. After 10 seconds, the icing should still remain the same. If it doesn't, add additional powdered sugar.
For a flooding consistency, you want the icing to be the thickness of heavy cream. Dribble a fine line of the icing on the table. After 5 seconds, it should have flattened out. A helpful hint is that you add a bit more of the egg white powder. This changes the chemical makeup of the icing and allows it to flow better.

Following are Peggy's notes and comments on making these delightful gingerbread cookies:

TIMELINE:
This is a three-day project for four dozen cookies with a fourth day for packaging.

Day One - Baking

Day Two - Outlining, filling, and letting dry overnight.

Day Three - Detail piping and Sugar Sanding.

Day Four - I will be making this a four-day project because I have chosen to put each cookie into a separate cello bag that is tied with a ribbon and a note.

DOUGH:
Use a mixture of Crisco and Butter. I know, I know, There will be lots of complaints here but this is one time I found that in using this combination, the cookies are tender, flavorful, and held the cookie cutter design. When I used just butter, the edges of the cookies just had ripples instead of points.

REFRIGERATING DOUGH:
Keep the dough cold. I separated the dough into two parts after I made it. I patted each half to 6-inch by 9-inch disks, wrapped them in plastic wrap, and refrigerated. This shape allowed me to start rolling quickly and helped with cutting out the snowflakes.

After rolling out and cutting the cookies, even if you are fast, put those trays in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. It makes all the difference in the world. The cookies edges come out beautiful because the edges bake very quickly and hold the look before the butter and the Crisco melt and make a puddled mess.

ROLLING DOUGH:
To keep the cookie dough from sticking, I combined one (1) part powdered sugar to one (1) part flour. I had no problem with dough sticking to the counter and the cookie wasn't damaged by to much flour being added to the recipe, causing toughness.

Roll out your cookie dough 3/16-inch thick. The 1/8-inch cookie broke, 1/4-inch was tough. I'm lucky that I have a husband that has a work shop. He made for me a set of "Baking Gauges". They are two strips of maple, 16-inches long and 1-inch wide. The depth is 1/8-inch, 3/16-inch, and 1/4-inch. I tried all three and decided that the 3/16-inch is by far the best. You can get the gauges at many baking stores or internet sites. I now feel these are a necessity for all my baking and all our daughters are getting them for Christmas. They made rolling out so easy. The best thing is that everything is uniform and all bake evenly.

BAKING SHEETS:
I tried four different baking sheets. The air-bake type, the cheap sheets that you get at the market and replace every year or so, a heavy steal sheet, and the stoneware type. My husband and the neighbor both voted on the cheap sheets. The air-bake was a very soft cookie. When I tried baking longer, the cookie just seemed dried out. The heavy steel sheet burned the bottom but was soggy in the middle. The stoneware sheet took five more minutes to bake and had to be completely cooled before baking the next batch. The cheap sheet, in eight minutes, gave me a strong bottomed but tender cookie that was a very lightly golden. Exactly what I was looking for. Also I didn't have to use a nonstick spray or parchment to keep the cookies from sticking.

COOLING:
After baking, let the cookies sit on the tray for a few minutes to cool. Also use a thin metal spatula to remove cookies from the tray to a cooling rack. If necessary dust the spatula with a bit of the flour and powdered sugar mix to keep things from sticking.

DECORATING:
The decorating was made easy by having a few things to help.

A 10-inch plastic (not disposable) piping bag with a #2 decorating tip for edges and details.
A squeeze bottle for flooding.
A few toothpicks to get the icing in the funny little corners.
A knife to help smooth out the flooded area if necessary.
An artists fine paint brush. The damp brush helps you correct many of the little flaws by melting the sugar and making them disappear.
Food Gel Colors

FROSTING OR ICING:
Tricks that I learned. Royal Icing is best if you have to mail these cookies but fondant tastes better. Use clear vanilla extract if you want a very white icing (Bridal White) A few drops of white Food Gel Color makes the icing an even brighter white.

PACKAGING:
If you want to package these separately you will also need the cello bags. You need to get the 6 x 9-inch bag. I got those from Sugarcraft item # 11-109 for 100 bags. HINT: I got the 5 1/4-inch bag thinking the cookies would fit, well they didn't. You need at least a 6-inch bag.