Anyone have a favorite gingerbread boy/girls cookie recipe?

cheezz, highlight then copy the text, then use paste special. I use Wordpad, so I don't know exactly

where you would find Paste Special on Word, but it's there somewhere. If you use Wordpad, you just click Edit, Paste Special, and Unformatted Text. If you still have problems, let me know, and I'll copy, paste it, and post it over here.

 
Never mind - I did it - here ya go (I omitted the first paragraph - not important):

"This is one of my favorite gingerbread cookie recipes. The dough comes together quickly and is very easy to work with. It is a rolled cookie dough that needs to be refrigerated before you can take cookie cutters to it, so the waiting is the worst part. The dough can be rolled and rerolled several times without toughening up the resulting cookies and, while the cookies do puff up some during baking, they hold their shape pretty well.

On top of all of that, the cookies taste great. I think I hit upon my favorite gingerbread spicing combination here, with a generous amount of ginger accented with cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. I almost always throw in a pinch of black pepper for some extra bite. The cookies can be baked up to get two different results. If you roll them out to be on the thicker side (just under 1/4 inch thick), they will be soft and chewy, and will stay that way even if they’re stored for several days. If you roll them out a bit thinner (1/8 inch or less) the cookies will be crisp, but not hard. Both crispy and chewy cookies should be frosted after they have cooled. I like a lemon-flavored icing for decorating, as it complements the spiciness of the gingerbread and brightens up the cookie as a whole. You can also top the cookies off with sprinkles or chopped, candied ginger if you prefer not to ice them."

Gingerbread Men

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp (freshly) ground nutmeg
pinch ground black pepper (optional)
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup coffee or water
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and cinnamon.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in molasses, water and vanilla, then gradually add in flour mixture until a smooth dough forms. Divide dough into two or three pieces (dough will be quite soft), cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, until firm.

Preheat oven to 375F.
For softer cookies:
On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to just under 1/4 inch thickness. Use cookie cutters of your choice (2-3″ gingerbread men are ideal!) to cut dough. Place cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 9-12 minutes, depending on size of cookie cutter. Cookies should be slightly firm to the touch at the edges. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

For crispier cookies:
On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to just under 1/8 inch thickness. Use cookie cutters of your choice (2-3″ gingerbread men are ideal!) to cut dough. Place cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 9-12 minutes, depending on size of cookie cutter. Cookies should be slightly firm to the touch at the edges and will be lightly browned. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

When cool, decorate with lemon icing (recipe below).

Makes about 30-40 gingerbread men, depending on size of cookie cutters used and whether you make them thick or thin.

Lemon Icing
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2-3 tbsp tsp lemon juice

In a small bowl combine powdered sugar and lemon juice. Substitute milk or cream plus 1 tsp lemon extract, if no fresh lemon juice is available. Add enough lemon juice to make the icing thick and pourable, but not runny (start with 1-2 tbsp and add more if necessary. You can always add a bit of extra sugar to thicken it if you add too much) and stir until very smooth. Scrape into piping bag with a fine tip or a ziploc bag with a corner cut off and pipe onto cooled cookies. Allow to set for at least 30 minutes, until firm, before storing cookies in an airtight container.

 
The only one I make and the only one my family absolutely LOVES is from...

...a very, very early post on the "other" board.

Here goes (don't miss this one, it's very good!):

This was posted by Teresa Parker, right here on the Swap, waaaaay back in December of 1995. (post # 583.3.1.1.1.1) I have tried others, including some very well-touted recipes from well-known cookbooks, and I always come back to these! They are wonderfully spicy, with just the right amount of sweetness, not too much molasses, and they are not dry. They're the Christmas standard for me now... no more contenders! The only drawback to this recipe is that the dough can be hard to work with. I let it come practically to room temp. before rolling out, and I keep the rolling pin lightly floured so it doesn't stick.

You can make the dough in advance and freeze it, or just form it into a log and wrap in plastic wrap to store in the fridge for days before baking.

Tip: Make sure you use fresh spices, especially the ground ginger. Also, I bake these on parchment paper. They slide right off.

******************************

Yummy Gingerbread Men (and Women!) Here is the recipe that I use for ginger- bread men and women. The length of time they should be cooked will depend on the type and color pan you use and whether or not you want soft or cruchy cookies and the size of your cookies. I like soft cookies and I cook them for 8 minutes on a light colored insulated pan.

GINGERBREAD COOKIES

5 1/2c *SIFTED* all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1c vegetable shortening
1c sugar
1c molasses
1 egg
1tsp vanilla flavoring

Sift flour, baking soda, salt and spices onto
waxed paper.

Beat vegetable shortening w/sugar until fluffy light; beat in molasses, egg and vanilla.

Stir in flour mixture a third at a time, blending well after each addition, to make a soft dough.

Wrap in foil and refrigerate overnight.

When ready to make the cookies, roll out 1/4 of the dough at a time to a 1/8 inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Place 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 350 degree preheated oven for 8 minutes or until cookies are firm, but not too dark. Remove to wire racks with a spatula to cool. Decorate with frosting and allow frosting to harden before storing. Makes about 6 doz. 3 inch cookies.

**********

Enjoy! Michael

 
Michael and Meryl - I compared your two recipes side by side

and the biggest difference is that Michael's has 1 egg and the other has coffee or water as the liquid. The other differences are butter vs. shortening, and the amount of spices. One is heaviest on the cinnamon and the other is heaviest on the ginger.

Michael - have you ever tried using butter instead of the shortening? Doesn't butter make a softer cookie?

 
Giant Gingerbread Kids I used to make these when my kids were younger

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup dark molasses
1/4 cup water
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
2 1/2 cups flour
raisins or currants
Beat first four ingredients in a large bowl on low speed until blended. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Stir in remaining ingredients except raisins.
Cover and refrigerate until chilled 1-2 hours
Heat oven to 375
Sprinkle cloth covered surface with flour and turn dough onto surface. Roll dough with a rolling pin till 1/4 inch thick. Cut with a 5 to 8 inch gingerbread cookie cutter. Lift cookies carefully with a large spatula onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
Decoate cookies with raisins.
Bake until set 8 to 10 minutes.
Let cookies cool 3 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet with a spatula.
Cool and decorate with frosting.
Makes eleven 5 inch or six 8 inch cookies

 
Never tried butter, but I might give it a go on your suggestion. I love gingerbread...

...and this recipe has, for me, the ideal spice combination, producing the flavor I love. I tried a ton of recipes including one from Nick Malgieri (sp?), and this one still wins!

Michael

 
Michael and Meryl.... I made both gingerbread men recipes this evening!! Here are my reviews...

Meryl - the recipe you posted above at #8858 made a VERY soft dough. It was a big difficult rolling out and handling because of the tenderness - and I chilled it 24 hours. I also chilled the cut out cookies on the cookie sheet while preheating the oven. They spread a bit and made sort of gnome-looking gingerbread men (actually - they sort of look like me after I finished sampling the dough *g*). They are a little soft and quite a nice taste. I also liked the lemon icing that goes with the recipe.
Here's a picture of the back of them so you can see how much they spread -
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/cheezz%20-%20desserts/gingerbread_men_back.jpg

and the fronts -
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/cheezz%20-%20desserts/gingerbread_men.jpg

 
And here is the review of Michael's recipe for Gingerbread Cookies

This was an absolute delight of a dough to work with - not at all sticky and rolls out beautifully - like modeling clay. They didn't spread at all and held their shape well. They are very crisp cookies and more like the 'traditional' ones you would expect. I like that there is more emphasis on cinnamon rather than cloves, ginger and nutmeg, although that is purely a matter of taste. And the taste of these was quite nice.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/cheezz%20-%20desserts/gingerbread_cookies.jpg

 
So both recipes have their good points - and both taste wonderful.

One is a little harder to work with and makes for a less distinct gingerbread man, but is softer and tastes wonderful. While Michael's recipe makes a dough that is lovely to work with and a perfectly baked little gingerbread man -- easier to frost, too.

They both taste great, so I guess it depends on what you plan to do with them.

Thanks to both of you! Now I'm going to have to work GailNJ's recipe into my baking schedule smileys/smile.gif

 
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