Can you believe that I have never made gingerbread cookies from scratch???
For my first go, I decided to try Jenna’s recipe. It might have been her adorable yoga shaped cookies that sold me OR that fact that she lists these as a holiday favorite. Either way, I came home from yoga today and pulled out my Kitchen Aid Mixer…
Only to discover that this cookie dough starts with a different type of bowl.
I have made a few other stove-top cookies before that were a huge success, so I was excited to get started on these Old Fashioned Gingerbread Cookies. The BOY has been joking with me about the Grandma’s molasses hanging out on top of the microwave all week (I think he liked the label). I have never used Molasses when baking before, and this was the only brand that I found at our local grocery store.
I quickly got started on these cookies adding the first ingredients to the pan. I was missing the SPECIAL INGREDIENT (white pepper), but proceeded anyways. A few minutes in, the mix already looked AND SMELLED like gingerbread!
I added the baking soda and had my camera ready for the ‘exciting part’. At first nothing happened, but soon the mix began to swell and grow. It looked (and smelled) like Gingerbread Mousse.
I resisted the urge to dig in with my fingers and instead, added in the butter, bit by bit, and then the egg. I used a heat-safe spatula to continuously stir my ‘dough’ resting as needed to prevent fatigue (yes, my arm was truly tired…I blame this morning’s yoga class!)
The last step…adding in the flour and salt.
To create this huge great-tasting (yes, I sampled some) hunk of dough!
For my birthday last year, I got this anti-bacterial baking surface and rolling pin.
I put them to good use today, along with my festive Christmas and Hanukkah cookie cutters!
I was initially worried about maintaining the integrity of my holiday shapes since my dough was warm and sticky, but by the second ‘roll out’, my cookies were looking good and easily transferring from countertop to baking sheet.
In the end, I created these festive and beautiful cookies.
And although the dough was strong and flavorful (as I admitted, I dug right in to try some), the cookies were good but didn’t leave that typically strong ginger aftertaste. This is good if you are not a huge fan of gingerbread, but not so good if you (like me) love that lingering ginger flavor that encourages you dip each bite of cookie into ice cold Soy Almond Milk. I couldn’t help but wonder if the missing white pepper would have created this effect.
Ultimately, I ended up with this heaping pile of holiday happiness bringing all cultures and traditions together on one stick-proof piece of paper. I swear the gingerbread boy above lost his arm in transfer and it was not sacrificed during a taste test!
In my opinion, homemade gingerbread cookies are WAY MORE FUN than store bought dough.
Give them a try using THIS RECIPE or any of these other blogger favorites…
thanks for linking back to my cookies – your homemade gingerbread look AWESOME! have a wonderful holiday season!!
You have tons of fabulous looking cookies.
So many recipes…so little time!