Gingerbread Cookies

I found a fantastic recipe for gingerbread cookies on Simply Recipes, one of my all-time favorite recipe sites.  Elise is my hero because her recipes are very practical, her instructions are super clear, and the food always turns out fantastic even when made by little old me. 

Here's her recipe repeated here, with some pictures of when we were making them. 

Ingredients:

3 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter (room temperature, softened)
1/2 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
1 Tbsp ground ginger
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses

1.  First, mix flour, baking soda, and all the other spices: ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, pepper, and salt.  Sift it all together.  I don't have a sifter, so i use a whisk for things like that.

2.  Cream butter in a large bowl.

Add sugar.

3.  Add egg and molasses.  Mmm molasses. 

You can find molasses in the baking aisle of your grocery store.  If it's not there, it also could be found near breakfast syrups.

4.  Add dry mix to the wet mix, but little by little.

Knead it until you get a nice firm lump of dough.

5.  Divide into 3 lumps and cover with plastic wrap.  Refrigerate dough at least an hour. 

6.  Roll out dough on lightly floured surface.  Elise recommends a 1/8" layer, but I like my cookies thick, so i went with 1/4".  T'sup to you.

7.  Cut out your little lads and lasses (fa la la la la, la la la la) and set them on cookie sheets. 

Here's my little helper.

Ready to go into the oven, friends?

8.  Bake at 350F for about 10 minutes (if you made yours a bit thicker like mine).  Maybe 8 if they're thin.

Allow to cool, then decorate with frosting, chocolate chips, candy, or whatever you happen to have on hand. 

Here's a few normal ones.

Then things start getting a little...creative.  Hippie cookie.

A super thin one with an eating disorder.  (He was the last of the batch)

An angry one with a need to pluck.

A Michigan cookie and a tree cookie.

Bad Santa.

A poopy one. (it was supposed to be a pretzel cookie)

A broken one :(  He originally had a smile but got a revised mouth after his leg injuries.

And the scariest one of all: The Zombie Bride. 

Sorry, is that supposed to be me? 

Anyways.

Many thanks to Elise from Simply Recipes for providing this fabulous recipe on her site.  We had a wonderful holiday cookie-making time! 

For a printable version of this recipe, please click here.