This week we’re talking COOKIES! And if there’s one cookie that everyone loves during the holidays, it’s GINGERBREAD. These Gingerbread Cut-Out Cookies are not only incredibly soft and spicy and chewy, they’re also egg-free…which makes Miss Em happy…which makes this mama happy.
I slightly adapted the original recipe, which is from one of my favorite blogs, Mel’s Kitchen Cafe. I love Mel’s site and cook from it nearly every week, but what I love most is that she has several scrumptious cookie recipes that are egg-free! We’ve made these gingerbread cookies three times already in the past few weeks, and anticipate making a few more batches as I finish up packaging the cookie boxes that I give away to family and friends for Christmas. They rank up there with my all-time favorite cookies.
And of course, you can create whatever shapes you’d like…gingerbread men (and women!), gingerbread trees, gingerbread ornaments, gingerbread candy canes, gingerbread dreidels….or a big ‘ol pile of gingerbread minis (my favorite for snacking!). I recently purchased some adorable mini Christmas cookie cutters from World Market.
And for Santa this Christmas Eve?…A little gingerbread heart with his big mug o’ milk. (Isn’t this cookie cutter adorable?…LOVE World Market…I could spend hours browsing…)
Shout out to my husband for the gingerbread people clothing designs! We’re a crackerjack team, huh? Last year, he nailed it with the traditional monogrammed sweater design. This year, he got a little more crazy…I especially love the bikini and suit and tie designs.
Besides helping with baking, the kids, of course, will love to help decorate these little guys! I make a simple white icing and spoon it into a small ziploc bag. Snip off a tiny corner of the bag and you’ve got yourself a homemade piping bag. For little hands, I like to fill a squeeze bottle with icing. The bottle is from…you guessed it…World Market (and is very inexpensive too…$0.99!)
Inevitably, this happens…
It’s all part of the holiday fun…Happy Baking!
Little Hands Can…
- Measure wet and dry ingredients
- Roll out the cookie dough
- Use cookie cutters to cut out fun shapes
- Measure the ingredients and mix the icing
- Decorate the cooled cookies
We made these gingerbread cut-outs with Em’s friends who were visiting from Indiana. Thanks Nolan and Rowan!
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 12 tablespoons (1 and ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened to cool room temperature
- ¾ cup molasses
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- In a large bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer), add the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, spices and salt. Mix together until combined using a hand mixer or your stand mixer.
- Cut the butter into tablespoon-size pieces and add it to the flour mixture. Mix again until the butter incorporates into the flour and the mixture resembles sand, about 1-2 minutes. With the mixer running, slowly add the molasses and milk. Mix to combine thoroughly.
- Divide the dough in half and place each half on a sheet of wax paper or parchment paper. Place an second sheet of wax paper or parchment on top of each dough half. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough to about ¼ inch in thickness. Place both sheets of rolled-out dough on a cookie sheet or cutting board that will fit in your fridge or freezer. Place the dough in the freezer for about 20 minutes, or in the fridge for at least 2 hours, until the dough firms up.
- When you're ready to cut and bake your cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat baking liner.
- Take the dough out of the freezer or fridge and peel off the top layer of paper. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Then use a large spatula to lift the cookies onto your baking sheet, leaving about 1 inch of space in between the cookies to allow for any spreading.
- Bake the cookies for 8-9 minutes, depending on the size of your cookies. The standard 5-inch gingerbread man shape takes 9 minutes in my oven. The mini-size cookies take about 7 minutes.
- Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then move them gently to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
- Gather the scraps of dough, re-roll (using the wax or parchment on top and bottom again) and cut more shapes for baking. You can do this as many times as needed to use all of the dough. If your dough gets too soft, roll it out between paper and put it back in the freezer for 5-10 minutes before cutting out your shapes. This is important because if the dough is too soft, it will be difficult to move the dough shapes to the baking sheet and your cookies will spread a lot.
- Let cookies cool completely before decorating.
- In a small bowl, mix the powdered sugar and milk together. Spoon into a small ziploc bag and snip off one small corner to use it as a piping bag. You could also put the icing in a small squeeze bottle, or just use a butter knife to spread the icing on your cookies.
Recipe adapted slightly from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
On the Side
As we’re rolling out our cookie dough, how thin should it be? Should it be thicker or thinner? We’re using our Gingerbread Cut-Out Cookies to learn about comparative adjectives!
First things first, what is an adjective? An adjective is a word that describes a noun. It gives us more information about how the noun looks, feels, smells, tastes or sounds. Comparative adjectives are used when you’re comparing two nouns. One noun is bigger or better or more than the other noun.
When rolling out your cookie dough, talk to your child about adjectives that describe what the dough looks like. Is it thin or thick? Now challenge them. Can you roll another piece of dough that is thinner (or thicker) than your first piece? When using a one-syllable adjective like “thin” or “thick”, the correct way to make the adjective comparative is to add “-er.” For more specific information on how to turn adjectives into comparative adjectives, visit Your Dictionary.
Now that you have two pieces of dough that are different in thickness, cut out shapes and bake them! What happens to the cookies? How does the thin cookie compare to the thinner (or thicker) cookie?
Using this evidence, you can determine how thick or thin you prefer to roll your dough for your gingerbread cookies.
Can you think of other comparative adjectives to describe your food or other things in your kitchen?
Disclaimer: As with all of our recipes, my suggestions for how kids can help with a particular recipe are based on what has worked in our kitchen. Your child may be able to help more or less based on their age and/or ability. As always, make sure you are properly supervising kids in the kitchen.
Carol says
December 16, 2015 at 7:49 AMHi Sally!
As usual you have inspired me! I have been making Gingerbread cookies for decades but have never managed to decorate them as beautifully as you and your husband have.!
Sally says
December 16, 2015 at 10:47 PMThanks, Carol! I love the decorating part of making gingerbread and sugar cookies. I have yet to actually use a real piping bag…I just prefer the ziploc filled with icing. It’s so much fun!
Linda Toonen says
December 16, 2015 at 9:53 AMSally,
I am totally amazed by everything you post. Each one is unbelievable. I made the pea pesto for a potluck at school today. Ran a test drive on Sunday and sampled. I think it will be a hit.
Sally says
December 16, 2015 at 10:44 PMThank you so much, Linda! So glad you tried the pea pesto…if I remember correctly, you liked it when we had it this summer at Em’s birthday? Let me know how it goes at the potluck!