Holidays 2015: Soft Gingerbread Cookies

I am a huge fan of anything gingery or cinnamon flavored. So these cookies were totally for me. I don't particularly care for the crunchy cracker like gingerbread cookies, so I used a recipe that claimed to make softer cookies. They definitely did! These cookies were so soft and tasty, everyone loved them!!

I didn't write this recipe myself, or even change anything about it. The cookie recipe from Blossomtostem.net is what I used, I just didn't use her glaze recipe, since I wanted to decorate these with Bennett.

I still (at the time we made the cookies) didn't have a memory card for the camera, so, again, bare with me. I used my phone again for the pictures, but if you follow the link below, she uses a much more detailed approach, with much better pictures!!

http://www.blossomtostem.net/2014/12/16/soft-gingerbread-cookies


----Soft Gingerbread Cookies----
(courtesy of blossomtostem.net)

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-processed is fine)
4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup molasses (not blackstrap)
2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Make the dough a day ahead of time, and chill in the fridge. 

Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl, and set aside. 

Add the butter to your mixing bowl, and beat on medium speed for about one minute. With the mixer on medium, slowly add the sugar and mix until smooth, pale, and fluffy. Add the egg and mix until incorporated. Add the molasses and corn syrup and beat on medium speed until well combined. Be sure to scrape down the sides of your bowl.

Add the dry ingredients in three seperate batches, and mix until all the dry bits are incorporated.

The dough will be very soft. Lay out a large piece of plastic wrap, dump your dough out, and form a big round/rectangular disc, about 1.5 inches thick. Wrap it tightly and securely, and place in the fridge until it's time to make cookies!

About 20 minutes before you want to bake the cookies, remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow to soften about 15 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 350F.

Once it's soft enough to roll out, roll your dough out on a clean, floured surface. I rolled mine out to about a 1/3 inch thick, then I placed my cut outs on parchment lined baking trays. (continue to ball up and roll out left over dough until it's all used!) Bake for 7-15 minutes, depending on the size of your cookies.

I baked mine for 10 mintues and they were soft and perfect!

Allow cookies to fully cool before you decide to decorate. (To poke holes for faces/buttons, I used the blunt end of a wooden skewer before I baked the cookies!)

For my icing, I mixed pasturized egg whites, with a splash of vanilla, and lots of powdered sugar. No measurments, just until the consistency was thick enough to pipe out of a baggie, BUT not so thin that it would run off the cookie. I used food coloring to color the icing. I ran out of red, so I used pink ;)

** Above, I showed you how I outline, and fill in my cookies! I just used a toothpick to drag the icing around and fill in all the little spaces, then I sprinkled little pearl sprinkles over the top before the icing set, so it would stick! **

Decorate and ENJOY! The cookie icing takes about 10 mins to fully dry, then they are ready to eat! :)