Best The Most Wonderful Gingerbread Cookies Recipes

GINGERBREAD MAN COOKIES

Steps:

• Add flour, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt to a mixing bowl and mix.
• Add the butter pieces and use a pastry blender to cut the butter in until the mixture resembles fine meal.
• With a mixer running on low speed gradually add the molasses and milk and mix until combined, about 30 seconds.
• Divide the dough in half, forming each into a ball. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight, or place in the freezer for about 20 minutes, until firm, if you're in a hurry.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Remove one dough sheet from the fridge/freezer and place on the counter. Roll out the dough (use a little flour on your rolling pin if needed), until it's about ½ inch thick. Cut gingerbread men and place them on prepared baking sheets.
• Refrigerate the gingerbread men for 5 minutes (meanwhile you can roll out the other dough ball).
• Bake the cookies until set in the centers and the dough barely retains and imprint when touched very gently with fingertip, 8 to 11 minutes (depending on the size of your cookie cutter). Do not overbake!!
• Remove the cookies to a wire rack. Allow to cool to room temperature before frosting.
• Store gingerbread cookies in an airtight container with parchment paper between the layers. Freeze for up to 3 months.

GINGERBREAD COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• First, mix together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, approximately 2-3 minutes with an electric mixer.
• Next, add egg and molasses and mix well.
• In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger, stirring to combine.
• Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until well combined.
• Form or scoop balls of dough that are slightly smaller than a golf ball. Place them on a baking sheet approximately 2" to 3" apart to allow room for cookies to spread.
• Finally, bake for 10-12 minutes, remove from oven and allow cookies to cool on baking for approximately ten minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

THE BEST GINGERBREAD COOKIES

Steps:

• For the cookies: Whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, allspice and cloves in a large bowl.
• Mix the butter, shortening, brown sugar and molasses in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat in the egg. Beat the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in two additions. Divide the dough in half, wrap in plastic and pat to 1/2-inch thick. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out one piece of dough to 1/4-inch thick, dusting with flour if needed. Cut into 3- to 5-inch cookies with a gingerbread man cutter or desired shape. Brush off the excess flour and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Repeat with the second piece of dough.
• Bake the cookies in batches until they are golden around the edges, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
• For the royal icing: Whisk the confectioners' sugar with the meringue powder in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat in 6 tablespoons of water until well combined and you have stiff glossy peaks, adding 1 tablespoon more water at a time to reach a smooth pipeable consistency. Mix in food coloring as desired. Fill pastry bags fitted with tips. Decorate the gingerbread cookies with the icing.

GINGERBREAD COOKIES

Steps:

• For the dough, sift the dry ingredients (except sugar) into a mixing bowl and stir or whisk well to combine.
• Beat the butter and sugar by machine and beat in the eggs, one at a time.
• Continue beating until the mixture is smooth, scraping down often.
• Beat in half the flour mixture, then stop and scrape down the bowl and beaters.
• Beat in the molasses, scrape again, and beat in the remaining flour mixture, just until combined.
• Divide the dough into several pieces and press each piece into a rectangle slightly more than 1/4" thick between 2 sheets of plastic wrap (this step is important).
• Chill the dough for at least 1 hour or until firm.
• Can be left overnight or frozen at this point.
• Set racks in the middle and upper thirds of the oven.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Roll the dough, one piece at a time, on a floured surface just to make the dough flat and even but not much thinner.
• The cookies should be 1/4 inch thick.
• Cut with floured cutters and arrange on the pans at an inch or two apart, to make room for expansion during baking.
• Repeat with remaining dough.
• Re-roll the scraps immediately or press together, chill and re-roll later.
• Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, until firm when pressed with a fingertip.
• (They won't have much extra color and should dent slightly when touched).
• Cool the cookies on pans a minute or two, then transfer to racks.
• Meanwhile, for the icing, combine the confectioner's sugar and egg whites in a mixing bowl and beat by machine until combined.
• Add the lemon juice or vinegar and continue beating till fluffy.
• Divide the icing into several small bowls and add the coloring.
• Keep plastic wrap pressed directly on the surface of the icing to prevent a crust from being formed.
• Use a pastry bag or spread icing on cookies to decorate.
• Use raisins, currants and other decorative sweet bits for extra garnish.
• If you'd like to use the cookies to hang on a Christmas tree, make a small hole near the top of the cookie as soon as they come out of the oven so you can get a narrow ribbon or string through.
• Variation: Cut round cookies and sandwich them with some heated apricot jam.
• The variations are endless.