# ISO Some Great Gingerbread Cutout Recipes...



## macmorrighan (Dec 5, 2006)

Hey guys, I'm a new member here, and am looking for some gingerbread cutout recipes to make for Yule [Winter Solstice], that anyone might have developed, or one considers a holiday staple that is tried-and-true! (Generally, I reserve my baking for my religious festivals, or Holy Days, that we term "Sabbats"; they occur eight times annually, or once every 6 weeks.) Personally, I'd like to find one tat tastes worlds different than my beloved Great Aunt's Gingersnap Cookie [aka Mollasses Crinkles], which I'll give below. I was thinking of using honey, rather than mollasses in the gingerbread. Heck, I must ask why it is so common an ingredient in gingerbread recipes, anyway? Although, should your recipe include molasses, please post it anyway! Hmmm...I wonder what adding candied orange and lemon peels might taste in such a recipe, or even pure rose extract in stead of vanilla.

By th way, how many teaspoons of spice should one add to a cookie recipe? I'd like to make one-- in the future, perhaps neck year wheh I can afford toi experiment-- "recreate" a sort of modern take off of a medieval German gingerbread formula. All I know is what spices were added, and that rose extract (not rose water) was also included. According to one German anthropologist, the spice mixture added to their famous medieval gingerbread (originating at a local convent) is the following-- though, how much spice added to how much flour was not noted (hence, it's similar to Pumpkin Pie or Apple Pie Spice):

Medieval Spice Mixture for Nurenburg Gingerbread

1 part cinnamon
3 parts nutmeg [a psychotropic and hallucinogen; although the dosage for the latter would be fatal, unlike other herbs, such as Fly Agaric, for example]
1 1/2 parts clove
6 parts ginger
1/4 part mace
Take Care,
Wade
[email protected]

Aunt Liz's Gingersnap Cookies

3/4 Cup shortening
1 Cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 Cup molasses
2 1/4 Cup flour [I think the reason why they didn't turn out like hers when I made them last year-- she passed on a few years ago-- is because I didn't soft the dry ingredients together; such an instruction wasn't included on the recipe card when I acquired her recipe box.]
1 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. each: ground gloves, and ground ginger
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
Roll into balls and coat the top in sugar; do not press cookies down to make them flat. (Yet, her cookies seemed to to flatten out a wee bit, while mine sort of ballooned upwards and were a bit on the dry side, compared to my memory of hers.) Bake at 375-degrees F. for 8 to 10 mins.


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## bobbyr (Mar 23, 2006)

These are tried and true.. I've made them many time with great results..

THICK AND CHEWY GINGERBREAD COOKIES
For about twenty 5-inch gingerbread people or thirty 3-inch cookies

If you plan to decorate your gingerbread cookies and make ornaments out of them, follow the directions for Thin, Crisp Gingerbread Cookies. Because flour is not added during rolling, dough scraps can be rolled and cut as many times as necessary Don't overbake the cookies or they will be dry. Store soft gingerbread in a wide, shallow airtight container or tin with a sheet of parchment or waxed paper between each cookie layer. These cookies are best eaten within one week. 

3 cups all-purpose flour 
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces and softened slightly 
3/4 cup un-sulphured molasses
2 tablespoons milk

1. In bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, stir together flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt, and baking soda at low speed until combined, about 30 seconds. Stop mixer and add butter pieces; mix at medium-low speed until mixture is sandy and resembles fine meal, about 1 1/2 minutes. Reduce speed to low and, with mixer running, gradually add molasses and milk; mix until dough is evenly moistened, about 20 seconds. Increase speed to medium and mix until thoroughly combined, about 10 seconds. 

2. Scrape dough onto work surface; divide in half. Working with one portion of dough at a time, roll 1/4-inch thick between two large sheets of parchment paper. Leaving dough sandwiched between parchment layers, stack on cookie sheet and freeze until firm, 15 to 20 minutes. (Alternatively, refrigerate dough 2 hours or overnight.)

3. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. 

4. Remove one dough sheet from freezer; place on work surface. Peel off top parchment sheet and gently lay it back in place. Flip dough over; peel off and discard second parchment layer. Cut dough into 5-inch gingerbread people or 3-inch gingerbread cookies, transferring shapes to parchment-lined cookie sheets with wide metal spatula, spacing them 3/4 inch apart; set scraps aside. Repeat with remaining dough until cookie sheets are full. Bake cookies until set in centers and dough barely retains imprint when touched very gently with fingertip, 8 to 11 minutes, rotating cookie sheets front to back and switching positions top to bottom halfway through baking time. Do not overbake. Cool cookies on sheets 2 minutes, then remove with wide metal spatula to wire rack; cool to room temperature.

5. Gather scraps; repeat rolling, cutting, and baking in steps 2 and 4. Repeat with remaining dough until all dough is used. 

THIN, CRISP GINGERBREAD COOKIES
For 2 1/2 to 3 dozen gingerbread people or 4 to 5 dozen cookies

These are sturdy and therefore suitable for making ornaments. If you wish to thread the cookies, snip wooden skewers to 1/2-inch lengths and press them into the cookies just before they go into the oven; remove skewers immediately after baking. Or, use a drinking straw to punch holes in the cookies when they're just out of the oven and still soft. Store in an airtight container. In dry climates, the cookies should keep about a month.

Follow recipe for Thick and Chewy Gingerbread Cookies, quartering rather than halving the dough, rolling each dough quarter 1/8-inch thick, reducing oven temperature to 325 degrees, and baking cookies until slightly darkened and firm in center when pressed with finger, about 15 to 20 minutes.


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## macmorrighan (Dec 5, 2006)

Hey thanks, Bobby! Now, do you scoop the flour into the measuring cup, or spoon it in (the latter, I hear, is how it's supposed to be done, but some recipes I've tried both ways don't turn out well at all when I do it the "appropriate way", so I had to ask). Now, why do you use molasses? Have you thought of, perhaps, using honey instead? ;o)

I noticed that you add butter to the dry ingredients mixture before adding any moist ingredients. Do you find that this results ina superior cookie, do to a decrees in glutton(sp?) forming?

Oh, and, why are no eggs added, may I ask? Just curious about wht some recipes call for them, and others do not.

BTW, before I forget, what might one recommend be used to "completely cool" cookies if they don't have a wire wrack? Granted, I'd buy one, but I'm presently unemployed.

Hey, when I can finally afford some rose extract, and can perfect my own recipe, I'll have to post it here for a peer "review", with pix., too!!!

Take Care,
Wade


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## rat (Mar 2, 2006)

Heres the recipe I used when I was the pastry chef for the Cayman Island goverment, it works well and is very well suited for the construction of houses and such. It bakes nicely without alot of spread and is not too hard when finished. It also will hold up to humidity, the house I made won best of show and best centerpiece and lasted several months after the main competition.

Here is a shameless link so you can see the house for yourself. 
http://www.ratsrestaurant.org/ratsre...?page=5&sub=63

12 cups flour 
2.5 tablespoon ginger 
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp chinese 5 spice powder
2 teaspoons baking soda

Measure the flour without sifting (just dont pack it into the measure)
Sift the dry ingredieints.

1 lb. solid vegetable shortening 
2 cups granulated sugar 
2.5 cups molasses (not blackstrap)
4 eggs

Sift flour, ginger and baking soda in a large bowl. Set aside. 
Cream the shortening and sugar, add molasses and lightly beaten eggs. Blend well. Slowly add the dry ingredients. It helps to hill dough 1 hour for best rolling results. 
Bake these at 350 degrees for 8-11 minutes. The cokies are better when they are a little soft when removed from the oven.


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## macmorrighan (Dec 5, 2006)

Thank you so much, Peter! I'll have to keep a copy of this one. And, your house looks delicious, too! Mmmmm.... (Darn me an' my sweet tooth!) Now, who's that dashing devil kneeling next to it? Eroll Flin's got nothin' on you! Heh heh heh... Just teasing.

Take Care and happy holidays!

Wade


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