Gingerbread Cookies

My mother in-law is an amazing cook.  Here she is with her dog Cobbler.

This year, she let me help her make all the Christmas cookies, but the one I was most looking forward to was the Gingerbread cookies.


Every year she makes this incredible cookie tray with about 6 to 7 different cookies.  It's hard to pick a favorite.  Some of the recipes are from when she was a kid and some she picked up over the years.  She told me that when the boys (Jon, Nick and Joe) were little, she use to be able to make them all in one day because they would love to help, especially with the icing and decorating of the Gingerbread and Sugar cookies.

So this year, I was able to make all the cookies with her including the Gingerbread cookies.  We had to break this up into 2 days but it was my favorite part of the holiday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Now for the FUN!

There may have been some wine involved in the icing stage but it made for some interesting decorating choices.

  We know how to celebrate the holidays at the Short/Cummings house!

I'm not sure where she got the Gingerbread recipe but they are magic.  They are a mix between the chewy bite of a cookie and soft spongy feel of a quick bread.  These cookies may be my favorite part of Christmas and the fact we got to make them together this past Christmas meant the world to me.  We even got the boys to help ice and decorate them which I think may have been the part that my mother in-law liked the most.  I'm pretty sure they boys haven't helped since they were in middle school. 

 Old Fashioned Gingerbread Cookies

1/3 Cup Shortening
1 Cup Brown Sugar (packed)
1 1/2 Cups Molasses
2/3 Cup Warm Water
7 Cups Sifted Flour
2 Teaspoons Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Ground Ginger
1 Teaspoon Ground Cloves
1 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon Ground Allspice

See Icing recipe below


The shortening should be at room temperature.  In a large bowl, combine the shortening with the brown sugar and molasses and mix thoroughly.  Blend in the water.  In another bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, salt and spice together.  Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients 1/3 at a time.  Refrigerate the dough for 4 hours or overnight.

Remove from the fridge and give it a few minutes to come to room temperature.  You can use this time to preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly flour your working surface and the rolling pin.  Working with half the mixture at a time, roll the dough to about 3/8 inch think.  These cookies are thicker than you are used to but trust me, it will all make sense after the first bite.  Cut with cookies cutters.  We had three different sizes.  Transfer to baking sheet and bake for 7-8 minutes.  You want them to look a little puffy and still be a little soft when transferring.  Move to a rack and let them cool completely before icing.

Decorator icing 

 

4 Cups Powdered Sugar
8 Tablespoons of Butter (at room temperature)
2 Teaspoons of Vanilla Extract
4-6 Tablespoons of Milk

Sift the flower into a large bowl.  Using a spoon or a hand mixer, blend the butter and the sugar until it looks like wet sand.  It's ok if it gets a little clumpy.  Add the vanilla extract and the milk and continue mixing.  You want it to be the consistency of yogurt or honey so it is a little runny and can spread, but doesn't spread too thin.  It's not an exact science to you may have to add a little more milk or sugar to get it right.  You want to use the icing right away or it can get hard so make the icing when you are ready to start icing.

And so it begins......

My goal this year was to start a food blog.  It only took me till May to set this up.  Food is my escape from reality.  When things don't make sense, it's time to pull out the flour, sugar, butter and eggs and escape into a world that does.