Christmas Cookie Baking: The Saga Continues

Christmas cookie baking is a BIG deal for me! It really doesn't seem quite like the holiday season has fully arrived unless I'm on my feet for at least eight hours, frantically rolling and cutting and sugaring and cooling and frosting and....you get the picture. I blast Christmas music (probably much to the dismay of my neighbors now that I think about it) and bake and bake until the house is fragrant, I've 'sampled' enough dough to potentially give me salmonella, all my tupperwares are full, the tile grout is full of jimmies and sprinkles, and there is flour on literally about 90% of the surfaces in my kitchen.

I try at least one new recipe every year, but there are a few varieties that I always make: most notably the peanut butter kiss cookies and the butter cookies that I've blogged about before (and that are pictured above). But for me the most important are the gingerbread cookies. If it isn't Christmas till I've baked, it definitely isn't Christmas baking until I've made the gingerbread cookies. They're sweet and spicy, fragrant and toothsome, and, most importantly, adorable. I bake them just enough to where they're firm to the touch but still soft to the bite. Covered with a dusting of sugar, they're the perfect accompaniment to a tall glass of milk or a warm cup of cinnamon tea.

The genius thing about my baking this year is that for the first time I was able to make cookies using my new stand mixer. Normally the gingerbread is pretty hard to mix because the dough is too stiff for a hand mixer, which means a lot of elbow grease is involved. But (much to Noel's relief since it's usually his elbow grease) the stand mixer was completely up to the challenge. I mixed the dough up Friday, refrigerated it overnight, and Saturday rolled out about 90 beautiful gingerbread men and bears in no time at all.


Gingerbread Cookies
5 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup shortening
1 cup white granulated sugar
1 egg
1 cup molasses
2 tablespoons vinegar

In a medium bowl combine the flour and spices (first six ingredients) and set aside. In a large bowl (preferably of your stand mixer) cream the shortening and sugar together. Then beat in the egg, the molasses, and the vinegar, making sure to incorporate each thoroughly before adding the next. Once the the wet ingredients are well combined, add the flour slowly, beating well, until all flour is thoroughly combined into the dough. Scrape the dough onto some plastic wrap, shape into a log, and wrap tightly. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or for up to 2 days.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Roll out small portions of the dough on a well floured surface (keep the rest of the dough in the fridge while you're rolling so that it doesn't get too soft). Roll until about 1/8 inch thick--or up to almost 1/4 of an inch if you want softer cookies. Cut into the desired shapes, place the cookies at least an inch apart on a parchment lined baking sheet, and sprinkle with sugar. You can re-roll the scraps, just make sure to add a little bit of cold dough each time so that you're never re-rolling only scraps, because the dough will be too warm, and they'll roll out really thin.

Bake the cookies on the center rack of your oven for 6-7 minutes. The cookies will still be soft. Let them rest on the baking sheet for a minute or two to firm up, then carefully remove to a wire rack to continue cooling. They're delicious while they're still warm, but be careful--they're sort of deceptively cool on the outside and then molten in the middle! They will keep for about ten days in an airtight container. After a few days they may get a little dried out, but if you put a slice of bread or a slice of an apple into the container they will soften up again in a few hours.