Gingerbread Fun

I just got some new gingerbread men cutters and found some cutters to make a gingerbread house. I searched everywere for a good recipe and there were so many to choose from, so I picked one from allrecipes.com that has apparently been used since the 1840s. I figured if it has stuck around that long it must be good.

Due to dietrary concerns I had to change the recipe a little bit, but they turned out great.

Almost Nauvoo Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup white sugar
1 cup molasses (I used Fancy molasses, it is a little sweater than the dark bootstrap)
3/4 cup oil (safflower or sunflower are healthiest, but canola works as well)
1/2 cup hot water
2 eggs
6 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, molasses, and oil until smooth, I had to use my handmixer on low to get the oil and molasses to mix together. Rinse molasses out of the measuring cup with hot water, and pour into the batter. Stir in eggs.

Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger; stir into the batter to make a soft dough. Add more flour if needed. Cover the bowl and refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour, or until firm.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness on a floured surface. Cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters. Place cookies onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cookies appear dry in the center.

Icing:
1/2 tsp margerine
2/3 cup icing sugar
1 tbsp milk

MIx together, add more icing sugar as needed to make the icing



These cookies were delicious, but they don't have the strong spiced flavour of some gingerbreads. Note that this recipe makes a lot of cookies, I got a small gingerbread house and about 3 dozen men out of it. I highly suggest halfing the recipe if you don't want to be cutting out cookies all night.