Gingerbread Snowflakes

This is adapted from marthastewart.com. This is an amazing cookie dough--it is so easy to work with, roll out and cut into shapes. Also extremely flavorful--I especially love the addition of freshly ground black pepper! I added a bit more ginger and cloves, since we love spicy gingerbread. I did cut these into snowflake shapes.

• Ready In: 3 hrs 25 mins
• Yields: 16 large cookies

Ingredients

• 6  cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• 1  teaspoon baking soda
• 1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1  cup unsalted butter
• 1  cup  packed dark brown sugar
• 4  teaspoons ground ginger
• 4  teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1  teaspoon  finely ground pepper
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 2  large eggs
• 1  cup unsulphured molasses
•  royal icing (if you want to frost the cookies)
•  fine sanding sugar, for sprinkling

Directions

1. Sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl. Set aside.
2. Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until fluffy. Mix in spices and salt, then eggs and molasses. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Divide dough into three disks of equal size; wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 350°. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface. Cut into snowflakes with a 7- inch snowflake-shape cookie cutter. Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.
4. Bake cookies until crisp but not dark, 12 to 14 minutes (it only took me about 11 minutes, so be sure to check them often). Let cool on sheets on wire racks.
5. If you decide to frost cookies: Put icing in a pastry bag fitted with a small plain round ti. Pipe designs on snowflakes; immediately sprinkle with sanding sugar. Let stand 5 minutes; tap off excess sugar. Let icing set completely at room temperature, about 1 hour. Store cookies between layers of parchment in an airtight container at room temperature up to 5 days.