The Most Wonderful Gingerbread Cookies

This is a great recipe for gingerbread cookie lovers; great ginger taste (a tablespoon had me sneezing for about a minute) which is the main reason why it gets my 4 stars. However on the second batch of cookie dough I did a little tinkering. The first batch I followed the recipe to the letter, but I think there is an issue of word usage in the directions. It says after adding the last bit of the dry ingredients to mix until dough is smooth. This dough will not be smooth but more like pie crust, so make sure you mix until well incorporated. It will be pretty much a heavy chunk of heavenly smelling dough that can easily divided to chill. Also with as much ginger this recipe calls for, keep in mind even after baking these cookies will have a strong ginger flavor which is great for gingerbread cookie lovers like myself, but be prepared for the non-fans. A nice coating of Royal Icing can help in this regaurd, or the traditional raisins. My second batch I reduced the amount of flour to 2 1/2 cups, and reduced the ginger by half. Since gingerbread is used for cut out cookies there is the risk of the dough becoming tough using the dusting of flour to keep it from sticking. There is already quite a bit of flour in the dough itself so you will need even less flour dusting than say with sugar cookie dough, however after repeated dusting and handling, reducing the cooking time won't help having a rather hard cookie after cooling. Using a half cup less flour there is room for dusting and handling no problem, but make sure you chill at the very least 3-4 hours and keep dough you're not using in the frige. Reducing the amount of ginger by half gives the cookie a more mild ginger flavor which appeals to children far better as well as those finicky "big kids" who want a more sweet cookie. Otherwise it's a great recipe for a traditional Christmas cookie making it well worth your time and love.

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This recipe helped me through my first gingerbread cookie attempt, and even with the gluten free and vegan substitutions I made (Pamela's gluten-free baking mix for wheat flour, EarthBalance for butter, and Ener-G egg replacer for the egg), it was a definite winner! Perhaps it was the gluten-free flour I was using, but I had no problems with sticky dough, even though I waited less than two hours to prepare the cookies. The cookies came out soft, with perfectly puffed edges and crisp, golden bottoms.

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I have made these cookies for our holiday trays for friends for the past two years. Everyone, including myself, seem to love them. I make batches of soft ones and then harder snappy ones. For the snappy ones, I just roll the dough a little thinner and bake two minutes longer. The little gingerbread men break right in half like a ginger snap. Very good for dipping in coffee too :-)

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These were very easy to make, and my family gobbled them up. I only give 4 stars because I prefer a much spicier cookie. Next time I'll try doubling the cloves and adding chunks of crystalized ginger. Great recipe!

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These cookies came out great! Made substituting in 1C. ww pastry flour and didn't use the lemon because I forgot to buy one at the store. I made the dough and kept it in the fridge for 3 days before baking on Christmas Eve. The dough was easy to work with and after two rounds in the oven I decided 6 minutes was the best cooking time. These cookies are definitely strongly spiced and are sure to please die hard gingerbread lovers. Used vanilla royal icing and red and green gel frosting to named cookies for seats at the dinner table.... brilliant!!

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Excellent recipe!!

I followed it to the letter and no need to reduce the flour at all (I HARDLY TOUCHED THE DOUGH! ) thanks to THE BEST HINT i read from another user on food.com (either on this recipe or another one i am not sure):

*ROLL THE CHILLED DOUGH BETWEEN WAXED PAPER
*TAKE OFF THE TOP PAPER and CUT OUT THE SHAPES (puzzle like) WITHOUT MOVING OR HANDLING THE DOUGH AT ALL
*~PUT THE PAPER & DOUGH ON A BAKING SHEET IN THE FREEZER
*TAKE OUT AFTER 10 min AND THE SHAPES ARE SO EASY TO REMOVE WO BREAKING! ONTO A BAKING SHEET STRAIGHT INTO THE OVEN!

I did all kind of shapes even the mini stars came out perfect!! The taste was delicious!!

Many thanks for sharing this recipe!

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These cookies are wonderful - just like it says. I didn't have to change a thing - I thought the recipe is perfect as written. I used snowflake cookies cutters and piped royal icing on them and then dipped them in white sparkling sugar.

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Funny reading the other reviews. People either thought too much spice or not enough! I have a few gingerbread recipes saved in my main cookbook and I've been going thru them to find the one I like best. I feel that a gingerbread cookie should taste like GINGER... go figure! Otherwise just make a molasses cookie into shapes instead! :op I think I will keep this recipe as it has the best mix of molasses to ginger and a lower amount of butter than the others that I tried. I was intrigued by a suggestion to use maple syrup in place of molasses. I may try that sometime.

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My first attempt at making gingerbread cookies. I, like other reviewers had an issue with dry, crumbly dough, even after 2 hours of rest. But that was remedied with a few tablespoons of water while kneading to bring it all together. I made 1-inch gingerbread men and baked them for 6 minutes. They were a hit! Absolutely delicious; initial bite is firm/ crisp, and the inside is moist and chewy. Used royal icing to decorate. Will absolutely make again!

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My first attempt at gingerbread, and it was much easier than I anticipated. I'm not a huge gingerbread fan, but these were really yummy. My tip would be, don't be shy about flouring your dough and rolling surface generously. My first pass was a little hard to handle, but after patting it repeatedly with flour it was a snap. Baked small stars and circles for eating with Pumpkin Pie Dip #25730 and it was awesome. The hit of the party, hands down!

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This is a FABULOUS recipe. I'm love how you can really adjust the thickness of the dough based on what you like, and they come out great no matter what. I used a pretty small cookie cutter, and it works great. It seems very difficult to mess these up!

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These are excelent! they've come out just right every time I've made them, and they're perfect! Crisp on the outside, soft in the middle, not too sweet, with lits of gingery flavor 5 stars. Great for the holidays!

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They come runnin' just as fast as they can... cause every kid's crazy 'bout a Gingerbread Man!!After borrowing The Gingerbread Man from our local library, the kids needed one of their own, that didn't run too fast! Finally, a Gingerbread recipe that isn't *too* sweet nor *too* gingery - they are Just Right! Great even for small children, but still maintain that yummy gingery flavor. I made combined cookie sheets with very small cut-outs as well as big Gingerboys, a bit over 1/4" thick. The tiny stars came out just barely crisp and the boys soft on the inside and firm enough to "walk" (did I mention the small children?) at 7 minutes. Thanks for my new Gingerbread recipe!!!

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I LOVE spicy cookies, and this was my first attempt at proper gingerbread cookies. I have replaced the molasses with golden syrup and for some reason the cookies got eaten without being iced. Maybe next time...

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This recipe produced such a soft, yummy gingerbread cookie!! I kept mine in the fridge for a couple of days until I was ready for it. The rolled out and baked beautifully. Once they were cooled, I dipped them in melted white chocolate - hubby was very happy!! Thanks for posting!

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This is a great recipe. My grandaughters and I made gingerbread boys for Christmas and had such fun together decorating them. The dough is so easy to work with they had no problemj with rolling and cutting. The plus is they tasted really good. Everyone at our annual Christmas Eve party commented on how cute and how good they were. Thanks for sharing it with us.

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These are amazing! I had never made any kind of cookies before and I was very hesitant to try as I thought it was difficult. I noticed this recipe had such high reviews, so I gave it a try for Christmas and the cookies came out UNBELIEVABLE! I got lots of compliments on them. I used honey instead of molasses. The mix of ginger and other spices is very well set in this recipe. I will be trying more kinds of cookies, now that I have the confidence :)

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These are wonderful. I made them thick so they were soft and chewy. My family loved them. Thanks for the recipe

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THANKYOU for posting this recipe! It was absolutely perfect for my needs. I used the dough to make small cups which I filled with a creamcheese mixture to make mini gingerbread cheesecakes. This recipe was great for this application because once baked it was just the rigth softness. The dough was very easy to work with and so amazingly fragrant. I had a little dough leftover from the cheesecakes so i tried rolling it out and making a traditional gingerbread-man type cookie, and it also woked perfectly for this. I will be making this again!

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The absolute best!!!!!

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