by Lauren Redfern

The holiday season is in full swing and with the holidays comes delicious food. Instead of taking the usual veggie tray to the annual party consider making Gingerbread Cookies that all your friends will love.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup molasses
• 1 egg
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

Royal Icing:

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon light corn syrup
• 2-3 tablespoons room temperature water
• Pinch of salt
• Gel or liquid Food coloring (optional)

Instructions

1. In the bowl,  mix together the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add the molasses and egg and mix again to combine.
2. Add the flour, salt, baking soda, and spices, then mix together. Scrape the gingerbread cookie dough out of the bowl onto a large piece of plastic wrap, then wrap it up into a disc and put it in the refrigerator to chill for a minimum of 3 hours.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. On a floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4″ thickness.
4. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Transfer the cookies to the baking sheets, leaving a little space between each cookie.
5. Bake for about 10 minutes until they just start to look set but do not over bake or they won’t stay soft. Let cool for 5-10 minutes on the pan. Remove from cookie sheets to cool completely on wire racks.

Royal Icing

1. In a bowl, mix together the powdered sugar, vanilla, corn syrup and 2 tablespoons of the water. You want the royal icing to drizzle off you whisk into the bowl and hold its shape for a second or two before melting back into the rest of the icing.To be more festive, you can separate your icing to different  bowls and add food coloring, then transfer to piping bags with small decorating tips.