Gingerbread Cookies

Hello everyone!

I was going to share all the cookies I made in one day, but then I thought "woah, slow your roll, that's a lot of cookies and blog posts in one day!" So now, until the end of blogmas, I will be sharing a different cookie recipe every other day.

Today's cookie recipe is Gingerbread People from the Great American Favourite Brand Name Cook Book Collector's Edition. It's such an old cookbook, but it's been a classic item in our kitchen since I was a baby. This recipe is on page 403. Because it's a brand name cookbook, there's a lot of ingredients that are very specific, but a lot of them can be replaced with what you have one hand.

It makes about 24 snowflakes or 14 six-inch tall ginger people.

Ingredients: For cookie

- 1 package of Ducan Hines Spice cake mix (This is the base of the recipe and cannot be replaced, you can find it at the Super Store and sometimes at Sobeys)

- 2 Teaspoons ground ginger

- 2 Large eggs

- 1/3 cup vegetable oil

- 1/3 cup dark molasses (fancy molasses works too)

- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

For frosting

- 2 1/4 cups of powdered sugar

- 4 tablespoons of water

- Splash of almond extract

- Blue food colouring

Equipment:

For cookie - One large bowl

- Rolling pin

- Parchment paper

- Cookie tray

For frosting

- Medium size bowl (microwavable)

- Whisk

- 2 Squeeze bottles (one larger than the other, you can get this at the Dollarama)

- Small Funnel

Instruction:

1) Combine all ingredients into the large bowl. Mix well and chill for two hours or overnight.

2) Once dough is chilled, it will be hard. Preheat oven to 350F. This dough warms up rather quickly, making it difficult to roll out. Place it back into the fridge if this is happening to you.

3) Place parchment paper on the counter and sprinkle a little flour on top. Place a chunk of dough on top, a little bit more flour on the dough, and another sheet of parchment paper on top. Like a sandwich.

4) Roll out the dough with the rolling pin to about a 1/4 inch. Dip your cookie cutter into the flour and then cut the cookie.

5) Bake until the edges start to brown. I am told 15 minutes makes them hard, so for soft cookies I would say 10-12 minutes, but everyone's oven's are different. Once they are ready, let them cool a little on the sheet and then move to a cooling rack.

For Frosting:

1) Combine sugar, water, and almond extract. Whisk together.

2) If the frosting is very tough to move place the bowl of frosting into the microwave for two 15 second intervals.

3) Fill larger squeeze tube with white frosting using the funnel, leave some frosting in the bowl. Place in fridge to cool for five minutes.

4) With the remaining frosting add some blue food colouring and pour into smaller squeeze tube. Cool as well for five minutes.

5) Using the frosting filled squeeze tubes decorate cookies. The tubes will give a nice clean line and the frosting will dry.

Thanks for reading,

Samantha