Gingerbread Cookies

Method

1. mix8 min
   butter + brown sugar creamed, molasses + egg in, dry goods folded through
   the cream, then the molasses ribboned in, then flour + ginger + cinnamon + cloves + soda + salt to a soft dark dough — stiffer than the drop-cookie chapter on purpose: this dough's career is holding a silhouette
2. rest60 min
   dough in two flat disks, wrapped, thoroughly cold
   non-negotiable — molasses dough at room temperature is glue that tears at every cutter edge; cold, it rolls clean and the cut people keep their arms; flat disks chill in an hour where a ball needs three
3. prep20 min
   rolled on flour, cut, scraps re-rolled once
   quarter-inch thick for soft cookies, eighth-inch for snappy structural ones — the soft-versus-snap war is settled entirely by rolling pin and timer, so make both and end the argument; cutters straight down, no twist, people to the pan
4. bake10 min
   350°F — 8-9 min for soft, 11-12 for snap, edges just set
   pulled when the edges firm and the centers still look underdone for the soft camp, a shade past that for the crisp one — they harden as they cool, and an overbaked gingerbread man shatters at the handshake
5. rest30 min
   fully cool BEFORE icing — then the table becomes the workshop
   royal icing (powdered sugar beaten with egg white to a pipeable ribbon) only on stone-cold cookies — warm ones melt the lines — and then the part that is the actual tradition: everyone decorates, the six-year-old's cookie is the best one, and this is not up for review