Easy Christmas Gingerbread Cookies Recipe
Easy Christmas Gingerbread Cookies Recipe: This classic gingerbread cookie recipe results in sturdy, perfectly spiced cookies to decorate for the holiday season!
Servings: 45 cookies
Calories: 67kcal
Ingredients
- ½ cup shortening
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- ½ cup molasses
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ tablespoon ground ginger
Instructions
Making the Cookie Dough
- In a large mixing bowl using a hand mixer (or a stand mixer bowl), cream together the shortening, sugar and salt on medium speed until smooth.
- Next, add the molasses, white vinegar and egg to the bowl and mix well to combine.
- Then, in a separate large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground cloves and ground ginger.
- Add the dry ingredients, a little at a time, to the wet ingredients, and mix well between each addition. Note: the dough will be thick.
- Cover and chill the gingerbread dough in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. The dough needs to be cold to allow it to be rolled out properly.
Cutting Out the Cookie Shapes
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. and line several baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats and set them aside.
- Remove the dough from the refrigeratorand keep the dough in 1 big pile.
- Cut two squares of parchment paper that are at least 1 inch bigger than the size of the cookies cutters you plan on using. (The cutters seen in this recipe are about 3 inch cookie cutters.)These two sheets of parchment paper are going be used to roll out the dough for each cookie, and for transferring to the baking sheet.
- For each cookie take a 1 inch ball of dough and place it in the center of one square of paper.You may want to sprinkle a little flour on the square first, just to make it easier to transfer. Then place the other square on top of the dough and then roll out the dough while it's between the two pieces.
- Remove the top piece of paper and press the cookie cutter into the flattened dough and remove the excess dough from around the cookie cutter, leaving the cut out cookie on a parchment square. Remove the cookie cutter.
- Now, take the parchment square that the cookie is on, and flip the cut out cookie onto the parchment-lined baking sheet and peel the top paper off. This process ensures the cookie keeps it shape and will bake with clean edges.
- Repeat for the remaining dough, spacing the cookies about 1 inches apart.
Baking the Cookies
- Bake for 5-6 minutes just until firm. The cookies will become crunchy if they are overbaked, so keep an eye on them in the oven.
- Allow the cookies to cool and decorate with icing and candies of your choice.
Video
Notes
- When peeling the parchment paper off of the cookie, start from the bottom and peel the paper back nearly horizontally in the opposite direction. This angle will prevent the dough from sticking as much.
- If you prefer, you can roll the dough out in a large thicker square and cut out multiple cookies at once and transfer them gently to the baking sheets with a thin offset spatula. The parchment paper method described above just helps the cookies keep their shape better.
- While the dough is rolled out relatively thinly, the cookies will puff up nicely in the oven.
- You can make the dough ahead of time! Store it in an airtight container and keep it in the refrigerator or up to 3 days.
- Store undecorated baked cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 weeks. After icing or frosting has been applied, store the cookies in an airtight container and eat within a week.
Nutrition
Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 67kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 4mg | Sodium: 34mg | Potassium: 65mg | Fiber: 0.2g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 5IU | Vitamin C: 0.001mg | Calcium: 10mg | Iron: 1mg
