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Gingerbread Cookies + Recipe

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My friend Alice :iconladyaliceofoz: has been posting her recipes on dA for some time, and I've decided it was time to share some of my special recipes too! (And yes, Lady Alice says it's just fine to copy her clever idea! :giggle: :hug: ) Credit for the beautiful photo and processing goes to my dear hubby :iconhunter1828:. :blowkiss:

I admit I used to be a bit secretive about my holiday recipes, but I've since decided that's silly. I've heard too many stories of stubborn cooks taking their recipes to the grave with them, and that's pointless. Good food is for sharing, after all! So I'm going to share with you all, my dA family. :D :santa:

Gingerbread is a pretty common German from Russia treat, but it's actually not one I had much of growing up. My folks are not fans of 'spicy' anything, so my mom never made gingerbread. I can't get enough of the stuff, though! I tried out a couple recipes before deciding this was the best one. In addition to gingerbread men, I also make gingerbread buffalo, as seen in the picture! :D

Old-Fashioned Gingerbread Cookies
(recipe from Sei Unser Gast (Be our Guest) by the North Star Chapter of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia)

5 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt*

1 cup lard, butter, or vegetable shortening (I use butter! *If you use salted butter you don't need to add any additional salt)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup molasses
2 eggs

Stir together the dry ingredients and set aside. Melt the butter and pour into the mixing bowl. Beat in the sugar and molasses, then the eggs. Gradually add the flour mixture and mix until the dough forms (it will be kind of messy/crumbly). Pack the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic or put in a plastic bag and chill for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375°. On a lightly floured surface, roll out one-third of the dough at a time, leaving the rest in the fridge (if it's too sticky to roll, chill it longer; if it's too stiff to roll, it got too cold - leave it out on the counter to warm up for a little while). Roll to 1/8" to 1/4" thick, depending on how thick you like your cookies. Cut out cookies and place on parchment lined (or lightly greased) cookie sheets. Bake about 10 minutes or until cookies are rather firm to the touch and starting to crisp around the edges (bake a couple minutes less if you like softer cookies, a couple minutes more if you prefer them crisp). Remove to either cooling racks or spread out newspapers/paper sacks to cool. Makes at least 4 dozen, depending on the size of your cutters.

You can frost these, but I personally hate frosting on cookies, so I never have. :)
Image size
1728x1123px 1.5 MB
Make
Canon
Model
Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT
Shutter Speed
1/60 second
Aperture
F/4.0
Focal Length
28 mm
ISO Speed
400
Date Taken
Dec 20, 2008, 7:35:31 PM
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