Gingerbread Kid Cookies

 

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1 egg
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Directions

• Cream the butter and sugar until smooth. 
• Add the molasses and continue to blend. 
• Mix in egg and vanilla until well incorporated. 
• Blend in spices, baking soda and salt.
• Once it's completely mixed, slowly start adding flour, one cup at a time.

Transfer dough to plastic wrap in order to chill overnight. Shape it into a flattened ball. You'll be rolling it out, so give yourself a head start by having it be flat. 

When you are ready to bake:

Preheat oven to 350*F

Roll the dough to 1/8-1/4 inch thickness. thicker if you are using larger cookie cutters. For my 2 inch gingerbread kids, I like thinner dough, closer to 1/8 inch thick. The thicker they are, the softer the finished cookie will be. 

Place cookies about an inch apart on parchment paper lined cookie sheet. They do puff up a bit. 

Bake 8-10 minutes, just until the edges start to brown. 

Pull the parchment paper onto the counter to cool cookies quicker. 

Store cookies in a closed container after completely cooled.

Decorate with royal icing, if desired. 

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• Getting ready to decorate with Royal Icing.

I use paste food coloring, starting with green. 

Sprinkling of green sugar for the scarves.

After allowing the green to set up and dry for a bit, 

I added the white icing. 

I sprinkled red sugar for the dresses. 

I will allow them all to rest on the kitchen counter 

for the day to set up solid before packaging. 

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Anise Seed Biscotti

Ingredients: 

6 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon Anise Seed

1 cup ground almonds

2 cups flour (or a little more until it's not too sticky to form into a loaf shape)

Almond bark or white chocolate for dipping

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Directions: 

Heat oven to 375*F.

Set chocolate into double boiler to melt.

Cream butter and sugar. Add each additional ingredient (except chocolate), in order, mixing well between each new addition.

Shape dough into 2 9-10 inch logs, flatten into a loaf shape, on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake at 375* for 18 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove logs to cutting board. Let it rest for about 10 minutes, or until it's cool enough to handle.

Reduce oven temperature to 325*F.

Using a serrated knife, slice crosswise into 1/2 inch slices. Carefully transfer each slice back to another parchment lined sheet, cut side down. You can place them close, not touching, they won't spread.

Bake slices for 20-25 minutes, or until golden. Too cool quickly, slide parchment off the cookie sheet and onto counter. Once cookies are cool, they can be dipped in chocolate. Once they are dipped, lay them back onto a clean sheet of parchment. You can reuse the parchment, just shake off the crumbs.

Allow to cool before storing. 

After mixing up the dough, I like to divide it into two loaves for easier handling. 

I make a log almost as long as the cookie sheet, then pat it on top to flatten it out a bit. 

It might be 3 inches across. It does puff up while baking. Leave space between them.

Out of the oven after the first baking. 

I move the loaf to the cutting board, with hot mitts on. I only let it cool enough to move it. 

I slice into roughly 1/4 inch slices. It can be a little crumbly, so not TOO thin. 

I tip the slices onto the knife and move them to the cookie sheet again for the second baking. 

Here they are all ready to bake again. I try to give a little space between them so 

the heat and dry them. Sometimes it's a tight fit. Back into the oven they go. 

While the cookies are baking, I melt the almond bark for dipping. Make-shift double boiler. 

Once the cookies start to brown a little, they come out and cool completely. 

Then they get dipped and laid out on parchment paper to dry before packing 

away in an airtight container. 

Space between them so they don't stick together. 

Once they are cool and solid,they can be packaged for 

gift giving or storage. 

A lovely addition to my Christmas cookie ensemble.