Molasses Gingerbread Cookies

The Christmas season has come and gone, but this doesn't mean that gingerbread season is over. Oh no, it's just begun. This gingerbread recipe, the same one used to make the gingerbread Hogwarts castle, is perfect for making iced cookies. The cookies are smooth and sturdy but are still chewy, the perfect canvas for whatever creation you have in mind. Thank you once again, Martha Stewart.

I got a bit carried away with the royal icing, dragées, and sanding sugars on this batch, but the cookie cutouts were begging me to bring these little treats to technicolor life.

And the googly-eyed reindeer can't help but make you smile :)

These cookies pair perfectly with a warm cup of tea or hot cocoa. When your own roof is snow-covered, you can snuggle up inside and enjoy a winter wonderland with out the wind chill.

Molasses Gingerbread Cookies

from Martha Stewart

yields about 5 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

4 teaspoons ground ginger

4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup packed dark-brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups unsulfured molasses

Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices in a medium bowl.

Beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in molasses. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add flour mixture, and beat until just combined. Divide dough into 3 portions, and wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 F. On a generously floured piece of parchment, roll dough to a scant 1/4 inch thick. Brush off excess flour. Slide dough and parchment onto baking sheets, and freeze for 15 minutes.

Cut out desired shapes. Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets, and freeze for 15 minutes.

Bake cookies for 6 minutes. Remove sheets from oven, and tap them firmly on counter to flatten cookies. Return to oven, rotating sheets, and bake until crisp but not darkened, 6 to 8 minutes more. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

Decorate to your heart's content.