Gingerbread Fun!

So, as most of you know, Vancouver doesn't really get winter weather until at least the end of December, sometimes even not until January. There are many pros and cons to this... generally we don't get a white Christmas, but at least we don't have to deal with -40 degree weather. Some of us can barely handle -1! Of course, I kind of find it hard to get into the Christmas spirit without some of that white stuff on the ground... Some of the first winters I remember were up in Prince George, and there was always so much snow there! So, I'm trying to find fun things to do to get myself into the spirit of Christmas, it is only 2 weeks away now!

Today was just disgusting outside. So much rain, kinda cold... really not a day that I wanted to go out and do anything, so I thought I'd bring the festivities inside tonight and do something fun and tasty! With so many Christmas parties and different things going on, I thought I'd get some of my baking out of the way and have a fun time with Alex decorating some Gingerbread cookies. Honestly, I've never made gingerbread before, but the wonderful world of the internet lead me to some great recipes, and I was excited to give them a try! I even bought some festive cookie cutters from Michaels! =)

I really love to bake. I'm not a bad cook, (I make a pretty mean chicken lasagne!) but if I could only use my oven for one thing, it'd be baking! On a side note.. if you're looking for some great cooking recipes or ideas, you should go check out Hilary's Kitchen as she is crazy about cooking and baking and I'm always super jealous of everything she makes. (just my little blog plug of the day - go read Hilary's blog.. but finish my post first!!)

Anyway, I decided that I would give gingerbread making a try... there are so many recipes out there, so here is my take on the many that I saw - I call it:

Kyleigh's Gingerbread Cookie Recipe (made from various other recipes mushed together!)

Makes: Roughly 36.. depending on how thick you roll the dough, size of cutter and if you burn some..

2-1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 butter or margarine (I used margarine!)
1/2 cup fancy molasses**
1 egg
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

** Many recipes I looked at called for various kind of molasses.. some light, some cooking, but I found most called for fancy. It's easily found in your grocery store, I'm not really sure why it's called fancy! It's really thick, rich and sugary, so if you prefer a more savory cookie, I'd take out a bit of the sugar, but the molasses is really the only liquid holding the cookie together!

Put all ingredients in large bowl. You can use a mixer to mix everything together... I don't have one so I just used a spoon to get it all combined. Cover, and put in fridge for 1-1.5 hours. (this is actually important, the molasses needs time to kind of harden, or you're going to be covered in sticky dough!)

Preheat oven to 350. Roll out dough to approx. 1/8-1/4 of an inch thick on a floured surface and use cookie cutters to make shapes. Place on greased or parchment cookie sheets.

BAKE COOKIES FOR ONLY 7 MINUTES CHECKING FREQUENTLY!!!!! (the caps are actually necessary) I seriously burnt about 16 cookies because I left them in there maybe 1 minute too long. They are super easy to burn, especially if they are as thin as mine, and since they are already brown it's really hard to tell if they are getting "golden". Trust your instincts, but I found 7 minutes to be the magic number with this recipe!

Icing

Honestly, I'm not super stoked on the icing. It was okay, but really sticky and messy and a pain in the butt to work with... and it basically tasted like icing sugar. When on the cookie it tastes great, but on it's own it's nothing to write home about!

1 cup of confectioners sugar
Milk to consistancy (less than a 1/4 cup if you are wanting a real icing, about a 1/4 if you want more of a glaze)
Splash of vanilla (only in coloured frosting! It makes white go brown! Use almond extract for white icing!)
Food colouring. I use gel colour so it doesn't dilute the frostings I make, but if you are using liquid makes sure to consider that liquid adding into your icing!!

So, here are some pictures of the final products. As you can probably tell, we aren't exactly decorating professionals, but they taste awesome!!

Perhaps if you are attending one of the many cookie/Christmas party/get togethers that I'm going to you will get to taste one of the delicious cookies! =)

Blog, and be happy!

Kyleigh.