Nothing brings in the spirit of the season like the aroma of gingerbread baking in the oven!
Servings: 24
Ingredients
- 5 - 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp ginger powder
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp cloves
- 1 cup shortening
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/4 cup unsulphured molasses
- 2 eggs
Instructions
- To start, position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 375F.
- Thoroughly mix four and a half cups of flour, baking soda and spices. Set aside.
- Place one cup of plain all-purpose flour in another bowl.
- Melt the shortening in a saucepan. Allow it to cool slightly or it will cook the eggs.
- Add sugar, molasses, and eggs and mix well.
- Add four cups of flour and mix well.
- Turn the mixture onto a lightly floured surface. Knead by hand. Add more flour as necessary, a little at a time, to make a firm dough. While the dough is firm, it is not firm enough to move the cookie cut-outs without them losing their shape. To avoid this, roll out the dough on parchment paper and then cut and bake them on the same.
- Roll out the dough on parchment paper to one quarter inch thickness.
- Cut out the cookies. Make sure that the cut-outs are more than one-quarter inch apart as the dough will spread during baking and the cookies will fuse together if they are too close.
- Peel back the dough in between cut-outs. The scraps can be re-rolled to make cookies.
- Bake for about 10 minutes or until the edges are starting to lightly brown.
- Remove the cookies to a cooling rack. They will be soft initially but will harden as they cool.
Notes
If you are not going to use the gingerbread right away, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate. Refrigerated dough will keep for a week. But be sure to remove the dough three hours prior to rolling so it softens and is workable.
© Ginny's Recipe Collection