i LOVE making gingerbread cookies, or maybe I just love gingerbread anything. Here is a recipe that I remember my mom using since I was ..well..young enough to remember. It's from the 1974 edition of Betty Crocker cookbook.
Gingerbread Cookies (actually labeled "gingerbread people")
1.5 cups dark molasses
1 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup cold water
1/3 cup butter (that's 3 tbsp, as labeled on the butter package)
7 cups flower
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Mix molasses, brown sugar, water and butter. Mix in remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hrs.
Heat oven to 350. Roll dough 1/4 inch thick on floured board. Cut with floured gingerbread cookie cutters. Place 2 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake until no indentation occurs. About 10-12 mins Decorate as desired.
Makes about 2.5 dozen cookies
SOME NOTES:
-My mom taught me this trick: pour a little bit of olive oil/or any oil..into the cup for the molasses and use your finger to coat the cup. The molasses will come right out.
-I didn't grease the cookie sheet, instead we used wax paper. Less mess. Works just as well.
-I forgot about carry over heat, so I kept baking my cookies util they were practically hard, and they kept baking after I took them out, so some of mine were overdone. I was cooking them for about 18 minutes!! tooooolongggg...but bear in mind that every oven is different.
-To frost them, you can do whatever your like, but I just mixed 2 tbsp water with 2 tbsp powdered sugar/food coloring, and it MAKES A MESS!! So I decreased the amount of water. The recipe suggests Decorator's frosting, but I liked this better..I like mine smothered in frosting as you can see in the picture.
2 comments:
I love to see our little kitchen bustling...even as Christmas Eve approaches!! Thanks for sharing ladies. Blessed Christmas to all of you!!!
Gingerbread cookies are my FAVORITE Christmas treat! I love the tip about the olive oil! I actually do kind of the same thing, except I substitute vegetable oil for the butter in the recipe, and add it before the molasses, so that the measuring cup is nice and greased. I think my recipe also does not call for water, maybe because of the oil being liquid? The recipe calls for a cup of oil, instead of 2/3 c. water + 1/3 c. butter. Interesting.
(And I also LOVE smothered-with-frosting cookies!) :)
Thanks for the link! (Looks like I'd better update, myself! Yikes!)
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