Soft Gingerbread Cookies

I have never been fond of gingerbread cookies until now.   I love these.  They are so soft and tasty.

 Ingredients:

• ½ c butter flavor shortening
• ½ c butter
• 1c granulated sugar
• 1 ¼c unsulphered molasses
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. flavoring extract such as vanilla or orange
• 5-5 ½c all-purpose flour {sometimes even six}
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 3 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 ½ tsp ground cloves
•  2 tsp ground nutmeg
• ¼- ½ tsp ground white pepper {optional}

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream together shortening butter and granulated sugar. Add the molasses and eggs and whip until light and fluffy. Sift all of your dry ingredients into a large bowl then use a measuring cup to add the dry ingredients about a cup at a time. Seperate the dough into three equal piecesthen wrap in plastic wrap and chill for an hour or two. Roll out on floured parchment paper to about 1/4 an inch thick and cut into desired shapes. Place the cut out cookies into the freezer for ten minutes or so before baking. Bake at 375° for 6-8 minutes for small cookies, 8-10 minutes for medium, and 10-15 minutes for large. Let cool, then decorate with vanilla royal icing.

Notes

Cookies can be decorated with royal icing or glaze. 

Ovens vary and gingerbread has to be watched. This year, my baby cookies took about 8 minutes and medium-ish ones ten. I really watch them. It’s kind of hard to tell when gingerbread is done because you cannot see browning. If you wait until you do, you have gone too far and will have hockey pucks rather than cookies. So, watch those baking times, stay near the oven until you figure out what it’s going to do.