Gingerbread Cookies

With semester over, I breathed a fresh sigh of relief today and relaxed by making some gingerbread cookies. They are such a cute and festive cookie I thought they would be a treat to make, and I'd be able to freeze them and give them as gifts.  I've never made gingerbread cookies on my own before and I'm really pleased with the way they turned out. I looked up a few recipes online, and settled on using this one. (I repeat the recipe below)  They were very easy to make, I followed the recipe exactly (with the exception of grinding my own nutmeg). I think they're a lot of fun if you like to have an opportunity to get creative and finicky with some icing!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup molasses
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon each ground cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the molasses, egg and water. Combine the flour, ginger, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice; add to creamed mixture and mix well. Divide dough in half. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until easy to handle.
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out each portion of dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 4-in. cookie cutter. Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Reroll scraps.
3. Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes or until edges are firm. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. Decorate as desired. Yield:about 2 dozen. [I ended up with 60!]

Happily, quite a few of my ingredients were organic.

After they were all done, I quick froze them on baking sheets in my freezer and then transferred them to tupperwares in the freezer to safe space and stay fresh.

I would definitely use this recipe again. Yummy and simple!