Gingerbread Cookies

We tried making homemade gingerbread cookies for the first time this year.  They were delicious.  I'm not the biggest gingerbread fan, but these were very flavorful.

I rolled them out extra thick, so the gingerbread men would be sturdy for little hands.  The recipe said 1/8 thickness, but I probably did 1/4 inch.  I used the recipe from America's Test Kitchen Cookbook.  Using the very large gingerbread man cookie cutters, this made about 10 cookies.

3 c flour

3/4 c packed dark brown sugar

1 T cinnamon

1 T ginger

3/4 t baking soda

1/2 t cloves

1/2 t salt

12 T unsalted butter, cut in pieces and softened

3/4 c light molasses

2 T whole milk (I used skim)

1.  Process the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, soda, cloves, and salt in a food processor about 10 seconds.  Scatter the butter pieces over the top and pulse until it is a fine meal.  With the machine running, slowly pour molasses and milk through the feed tube and process until a dough forms.

2.  Scrape the dough onto the counter and divide in half.  Working with one half at a time, roll out dough between sheets of parchment paper.  Slide the rolled dough and parchment onto a baking sheet and refrigerate until firm, about 20 minutes.

3.  Heat oven to 350.  Cute shapes out of rolled dough.  Lay on parchment lined baking sheets.  Bake 10-12 minutes.

4.  Let cookies cool 2 minutes before transferring to cooling racks.