Gingerbread Cookie Dough

So, we've been invited to a Dirty Santa party tomorrow night (thanks Carleen). Carleen was making cookies on Sunday (Tina and I helped her frost them) and we agreed that we needed to make more for tomorrow night's party. Well, I decided that I was going to make the dough tonight so that we could get right into baking our cookies tomorrow afternoon. Now, I've made gingerbread cookies once before and that was three years ago and I was using someone else's cookbook, so I had to search for a different recipe. After searching for quite some time, I came across an old cookbook in my kitchen and found a recipe for 1 cookie dough that can be used 12 different ways! Sounds perfect for me!

To start things off, I had to get all of my ingredients together...


So here is the recipe:

2 3/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground gloves
3/4 c dark brown sugar (packed)
1/2 c. butter (1 stick) (softened)
1/4 c. dark molasses
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla



1. On waxed paper, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.
2. In a large bowl, with mixer on medium speed, beat butter and brown sugar for a minute, or until creamy, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Add egg, vanilla, and molasses; beat until well mixed. Reduce speed to low.
3. Gradually beat in flour mixture until just blended (don't forget to scrape the bowl every now and again to get all of the flour mixed in.
4. Divide dough into 3 equal pieces (I left mine in one big blob). Flatten each into a disk shape; wrap in plastic wrap. Put in fridge for 2 hours or overnight, until firm enough to roll.
5. Preheat over to 350 degrees. Between two sheets of waxed paper, roll the dough to 1/8 inch thick. Remove top sheet. Flour cookie cutters and cut out as many cookies as possible. Place cookies on ungreased cookie sheet, 1 inch apart and bake 11 to 13 minutes or until edges are brown (or until you think so!). Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool.
6. Repeat until you use up all the dough.
7. After the cookies are cool, you can frost them anyway you want.

So my dough is hanging out in the fridge tonight, waiting to go to Carleen's tomorrow. I will do my best to take pictures of our cookies for you to see.