Gingerbread Cookies
349kcal4.5g protein12.3g fat55.9g carbs~$0.45/ serving*Estimates computed from the ingredient list; cost uses average US supermarket prices. Not a substitute for packaging measurements or your receipt.
Contains gluten, dairy, egg
Restrictions
Containsgluten · dairy · eggIt is in an ingredient you cannot leave out.
Diets
VegetarianPescatarianNo porkNo alcohol
Worked out from the ingredient list. It knows nothing about brands, shared equipment or cross contamination, and it is not a certification — if you have an allergy, you still have to read the label.
Ingredients
Servings:
| ¾ cup |  butter (room temperature) |
| ¾ cup |  brown sugar |
| ⅔ cup |  molasses |
| 1 unit |  egg |
| 3 ½ cup |  flour |
| 1 tbsp |  ground ginger |
| 1 tbsp |  cinnamon |
| ½ tsp |  cloves (ground) |
| 1 tsp |  baking soda |
| ½ tsp | salt |
Optional
Not counted above. The dish works without them.
| 2 cup |  royal icing (powdered sugar + egg white, the decorator's pen) |
Steps
- Mix8 minbutter + brown sugar creamed, molasses + egg in, dry goods folded throughthe 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
- Rest60 mindough in two flat disks, wrapped, thoroughly coldnon-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
- Prep20 minrolled on flour, cut, scraps re-rolled oncequarter-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
- Bake10 min350°F — 8-9 min for soft, 11-12 for snap, edges just setpulled 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
- Rest30 minfully cool BEFORE icing — then the table becomes the workshoproyal 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