Scooped Gingerbread!

...spices & everything nice...

    In the past I would do up cookies really fancy. Gingerbread cookies were always iced. However, my kids have requested so many cookies to give to their friends and sometimes teachers. I can no longer keep up! Most of my cookies are done with a cookie scoop. Here are my scooped Gingerbread...

I love that they look like scooped blobs of ice cream! These are with out icing. (My dad is a diabetic, so I tried to go easy with the sugar.) If I were to give these away, I would use a standard cookie icing and do a simple drizzle on top. :) 

Here are some cookies that I've done in the past...

I used the same recipe for the above cookies. I just rolled them out to a 1/4 inch thickness and cut the shapes out with a cookie cutter.

Here's the recipe that I use. I printed it out years ago from Joyofbaking.com, under the title Gingerbread Men.

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt (I use Kosher salt)

3/4 tsp baking soda

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 ground cloves

1/2 cup unsalted room temperature butter

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

1 egg

2/3 cups unsulphured molasses

Directions:

With a mixer (hand held or stand) cream butter and sugar together until fluffy.

Add the eggs and molasses and beat until combined. 

According to the recipe, in a separate bowl ,you are to combined all of the dry ingredients together. Then slowly add that to the wet ingredients while the mixer is on. Personally, I add it to the wet ingredients when the mixer is off. Flour first, then the salt and baking soda. I use the fact that the flour is white, to keep tract of the spices that I include. I put each spice in a neat pile a top the flour. I can easily see my additions. Then I start my mixer at it's slowest speed, working up to the next fastest.

Divide the dough in half. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate over night.

...you can roll the dough out like I mentioned above. Make sure you flour your surface first, before putting your dough down. ...or you can do what I did and use a cookie scoop. :)

I use parchment paper to line my pans. You can also use a silicone mat. Bake your cookies in a preheated 350F oven for 8-12 minutes. 

I wait for the cookies to cool on the pan for about a minute. ...and yeah, most peeps would use a cooling rack to cool their cookies. I simply lay out a long piece of foil on the counter to transfer my cookies to...it then makes a good spot for icing.

I don't have a set recipe for icing. I normally use confectioner's sugar and a little water. I mix the two until I get a a thickness that can still move through a piping bag. :)