Gingerbread Cookies

Shhhh, I am up early, again! It is just me, the dog with her nose neatly tucked into her new blanket, my latest cooking adventure, and my camera.

My oldest son has been requesting Gingerbread men cookies. I find that when I cook something desirous for this child, he comes out of his room more. He unhooks from all things teenagerish and is just my kid begging to be the taste tester.
I stall him off as long as possible...it keeps him coming back often you see!

I have always been a little gun shy about making gingerbread cookies. First of all, I haven't always had a great affinity for ginger...or molasses for that matter.
Oh, and there was that time when I made some from a box mix and no one would eat them, not even the dog we had at the time.
I do cringe at the memory, as do the other two people who were alive in this house for that event.

Well, we no longer feed our dog anything but dog items, so she wasn't going to be a good gauge for yumminess or not.
I had to go to a place I trusted to find a recipe.
( I really wasn't up for trial and error on this one.)
However before I could do that, I opened up a blog I read called Smitten Kitchen, and right there for that day was a recipe for Spicy Gingerbread cookies. She had gone to the go to source as well!
Come on you know who I am talking about right?
Why, Martha.
Martha Stewart of course.

Since Deb at SK already took the time to type out all of the instructions on this cookie, I am not going to go to that effort. I will just use my time to comment on the process and outcome.

The dough was super easy to make. Just like almost every other cookie you start by creaming the butter and sugar, then adding the egg.
Well, that is how I start anyway.
I like the instant gratification of beating the butter!
The amount of spice in this cookie is a tiny bit off putting, but I went ahead and put my trust in Martha and Deb, and ask that you do the same with me.
They are oh so spicy, but in such a smooth and wonderful way, you won't regret it I promise.

I did not have my camera out yesterday so I cannot put a photo of this next move up, but I have confidence in your ability to comprehend what I am telling you.
The original recipe tells you to make up the dough then separate it into three parts, wrap them in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge to chill; which is what I did despite the fact that I had halved the recipe and had ridiculously small balls of dough to refrigerate.
Sometimes I am just running on auto pilot, which frankly is not a very safe setting!!

Here is my opinion on cold cookie dough rolling.
It is a hassle!
It takes the fun out of cookie making!
Something must be done to make it a more acceptable task.
As I worked with this dough I remembered a technique I had used in the past, but had forgotten since I have been making so many drop cookies.

Place the freshly made dough between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and gently roll the dough into a sheet of appropriate thickness. This must be done when the dough is room temp or it will tear your plastic wrap, making this an abject waste of time.
Place this into the fridge to chill on a sheet pan, then when it comes to cutting time just take this baby out and cut away.
As you cut out the shapes, the dough will come to room temp again and you can then take the scraps, join them all together, roll them between the wrap again and put 'em in the fridge again.
Repeat until you are sick of it and just decide to put the fun shaped scraps on the pan for cooking.
I cannot imagine dealing with a full recipe of this dough, whoa! Half was plenty for me!

I decided that I would go the Royal Icing route for the first time in my life.
Ohhhh the gorgeous cookies outlined with a pristine edge and filled to perfection with the flow icing.
The artist in me just can't get enough of the beauty of a royal iced cookie.
The lame weak wristed old woman in me says forget it, the gorgeousness is not gonna happen.

I mean, I thought it was gonna happen.
In my minds eye, I saw it happening!

Something in me must have known this was going to flop and that is why I chose to make the colors I did.
I am in serious need of food color replenishing because all I had to work with were turquoise, red and yellow.
So I chose to make coral with the red and yellow and stuck with the turquoise as it came out of the bottle.
Mmmmmm turquoise and coral.
That is such a lovely color combination...
...on say a chunky bold necklace, or an outfit for a cruise, or leaf and acorn shaped cookies because I couldn't find the gingerbread men shapes!!!

Watch out Martha!

(I skipped reading the part that said to separate them with wax paper so my cookies have crumbs on them this morning.)

Everyone in my house is awake now and is seeing the difference between the previous picture and what is on the plate now!

Every person in this house has approached the desk, reached a hand out while simultaneously saying, "Can I have a cookie?"
When I tell them "NO!"
They all immediately came up with the same comment.
"Why do YOU get to have cookies for breakfast??"
I firmly state that I am not eating cookies for breakfast which has consistently elicited the response of...
"Then why are there only one and a half cookies left on the plate?"

I am outraged!
I am being accused of eating cookies for breakfast!
Is it not obvious that I am working on a blog post here???
I would never, ever eat cookies for breakfast!

Sorry I got distracted there, back to the cookies.
Piping is not easy! I feel that with practice I will certainly get better at it, but I don't have a great desire to do it again anytime soon. (have I told you about my weak wrists that don't take well to overworking?)
The cookies beneath the crazy icing are supremely good!!
They are soft and chewy and full of bold spicy goodness.
This recipe is a keeper for sure.
The icing color combo and skill level...not so much!

Obviously everyone in my family approves and would eat these cookies for breakfast if I let them.

But, I am a good Mom!
I denied them all and sent them away to eat oats or something while I finished my blog post!

Yup, almost done!