kid-friendly Gingerbread cut-outs

I know, I am a little tardy in posting this, but just in case you haven't baked these yet these season, here you go:

Kid-Friendly Gingerbread Cutouts

Cream together:
1/2 C butter
1/2 C white sugar
1/2 C brown sugar

Add:
1 C dark molasses

Sift together:
2 t baking soda
1/2 t cloves
1 t cinnamon
4 t ginger
1 1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper

Sift:
6 1/2 to 7 C flour

Measure out 2/3 C water.

Alternately add the spice mixture, the water, and the flour to the butter/sugar mix. You want the stiffest dough you can get without crumbling apart. You may or may not need all the flour, depending on the wheat it came from, the grind, and other variables to nebulous to itemize.

Roll out dough. Cut into cute shapes.

I use a dough scraper to lift the cookies off the rolling surface. If you bake a lot, and you don't have a dough scraper, Santa needs to bring you one. They are not expensive and make post-baking surface clean up a breeze.

I like to dip about half the cookies into sugar before baking and frost the other half (after baking, of course).


Bake 7-8 minutes at 350.

This recipes makes a crunchy crispy cookie. If you want a softer cookie, reduce the amount of flour, keeping in mind that you will lose some kid-friendliness thereby.