Old Fashion Gingerbread for Houses or Cookies
Gingerbread Cookies ready for decorating
Gingerbread recipes are a dime a dozen I know. But this is a recipe that I have been using for years to make cookies to eat as is, decorate with icing and decorations, or even to build gingerbread houses! For me it is fail safe, and really is an easy dough to work with. It has just enough spice in it to give it a great flavor and because they are a harder cookie they can store and ship very well.
Ingredients
Gingerbread Ingredients
The best part of this recipe is again a few simple ingredients. If you have never made gingerbread cookies from scratch you will see this list and go - are you kidding that is all that is in it? Another great thing is the smell of your house when these cookies are baking in the oven! If you intend to make a house out of this recipe, you have enough to make a decent sized - or at least with my kit the house is roughly 5"x10" with a roof, chimney and trees.
Ingredients
Gingerbread Dough
5 Cups Flour
1 Cup Sugar
1 Tablespoon Ground Ginger
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon Nutmeg
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Cup Vegetable Shortening
1 Cup Unsulphured Molasses
Icing Recipe - If making a house you may need to make 3 or 4 batches
1 Large Egg White
1 2/3 Cup Confectioners Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Cream of TarTar
Beat Egg white in small bowl until foamy. Gradually beat in the sugar and cream of tartar. Continue beating until smooth and stiff peaks form when beaters are lifted. To color icing just divide and add a few drops of food coloring mixing well until you reach the color you like.
Ingredients
Gingerbread Dough
5 Cups Flour
1 Cup Sugar
1 Tablespoon Ground Ginger
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon Nutmeg
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Cup Vegetable Shortening
1 Cup Unsulphured Molasses
Icing Recipe - If making a house you may need to make 3 or 4 batches
1 Large Egg White
1 2/3 Cup Confectioners Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Cream of TarTar
Beat Egg white in small bowl until foamy. Gradually beat in the sugar and cream of tartar. Continue beating until smooth and stiff peaks form when beaters are lifted. To color icing just divide and add a few drops of food coloring mixing well until you reach the color you like.
Step 1 - Measuring Ingredients
It is important to sift all dry ingredients
Measuring everything out ahead of time always works best. Including the shortening and the molasses which is kind of like pulling taffy to get it into the measuring cup. The other important thing is to sift the flour, ginger, baking soda, nutmeg and salt all together. Some of the dry ingredients are a bit clumpy so this eliminates any larger clumps from getting into the batter as well as making sure everything blended well. Remove 1 Cup of this sifted mixture and set aside.
Step 2 - Melting the Shortening
Shortening being melted
Using a medium sized sauce pan, melt the shortening over medium heat. Once the shortening is fully melted you will need to add the sugar and molasses stirring constantly until the sugar is fully dissolved.
Step 3 - Mixing the dough
Mixing the dry ingredients
Add all the sifted dry flour mixture (not the 1 cup set aside) to the stand mixer. I always turn the blade on low for a minute or so to give the mixture another quick mix. When the shortening is melted and sugar is dissolved, slowly add this to the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Then take this dough and place on countertop. Mix in the 1 cup of flour mixture into the dough by hand. Once completely mixed in, divide dough in to three equal parts and shape into a ball.
Step 4 - Rolling out the dough
Rolling out the dough
Using a rolling pin and rolling the dough directly onto the ungreased cookie sheets is the easiest method to use with this gingerbread dough. I dampen a towel which I place under the pan and this makes it not move while rolling the dough. I roll the dough and turn it and flip it as needed. When it gets to big in one direction I just move the pan a quarter turn and continue rolling the dough until it is approximately 1/4 inch thick. Using cookie cutters in any shape begin to cut out your cookies removing the excess dough in between cut outs. Take all excess pieces and gently knead back into a ball and repeat the rolling and cutting out until you have used up all of the gingerbread dough. If the dough becomes too dry and crumbly, you can add a bit of warm water to the dough - but remember a little goes a long way!
Step 5 - Baking and cooling
Cookies ready to eat
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Once you have cut out the dough on the pan and removed excess dough, bake in the oven for 13-15 minutes or until edges are just browning. Remove from oven and allow the cookies to completely cool right on the pans. They will actually be stuck to the pan until they cool down. Once they cool, you can put them on a cooling rack for a bit longer to make sure they are completely cool. If you intend to decorate these cookies, you will need a plate or platter to store them on in a single layer. If you leave plain, these cookies store well in any air tight container.
If you are making a house, you can roll out the dough as above but instead of individual cut out shapes, cut out the larger sections for the roof and walls of house. If making windows, cut out the window but leave the window in the hole until the cookie is baked and cool. You will need to recut the edges of the windows once you remove the pan from the oven and the cookie is still soft. Enjoy and happy baking!
I have also included a photo from a Gingerbread Church I made some years ago now for a Gingerbread House contest at Mount Snow in Vermont. It is a lot of fun to make houses, and this is actually the recipe I used to make the walls of the church.
I have also included a photo from a Gingerbread Church I made some years ago now for a Gingerbread House contest at Mount Snow in Vermont. It is a lot of fun to make houses, and this is actually the recipe I used to make the walls of the church.