Soft Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

I made these soft gingerbread cookies for a summertime birthday party instead of the usual decorated sugar cookies that I always enjoy making. They smelled so good and made it feel like the winter holidays.

I have noticed that some people prefer soft gingerbread cookies, while others prefer crispy gingerbread, so make sure to have both types within each batch. It is quite easy to make them soft or crispy depending on how thick or thin you roll the cookie dough and also how long they are baked for.

For the dough, I use this perfect gingerbread cookie recipe from Martha Stewart: Gingerbread Snowflakes
I use it as both my soft gingerbread cookie recipe and my crispy gingerbread cookie recipe.
For the icing, I used this Royal Icing Recipe.

I usually don't cut out large cookies such as the ones the recipe indicates so I usually get about 40 cookies instead of 16. The cookies I make tend to be in the 3 to 4 inch range.

Using the Martha Stewart gingerbread cookie recipe, I end up with 3 disks of dough so I bake each one separately. I roll out the first disk to 1/4 inch thickness, cut out the shapes and bake according the instructions from the recipe. For the second disk, I roll it out just a tad thinner, cut out the shapes and bake it for about 2 minutes less. These turn out a bit crispier for those who like crispy gingerbread cookies. For the third disk, I roll the dough out just a bit thicker than 1/4 inch and bake it for 2 minutes longer than the original batch. These will produce soft gingerbread cookies for those who prefer them to be soft.

That is my easy way of getting crispy gingerbread cookies, soft gingerbread cookies and perfect gingerbread cookies all from mixing up one batch of Martha Stewart's gingerbread cookie recipe. Everyone gets the gingerbread cookie they prefer too!

Camoflauge Gingerbread and Sugar Cookie Men with Matching Gingerbread Dogs

I made these camoflauge gingerbread cookie men, sugar cookie men and gingerbread dogs for my brother in law's birthday. He loves to go hunting and has a dog so I thought it would be fitting to make camoflauge men and dog shaped cookies to go with them. Everyone ate most of the cookies before dinner, but my sister was sure to save the giant cookie men for them to enjoy later. I used the giant persson cookie cutter from my Wilton 101 Piece Cookie Cutter Setfor the big cookies and for the regular sized ones, I used the dog and regular size person from the same set.

I usually don't use such dark colors since I usually make bright girly cookies, but this was a fun experiment. My brother in law's eyes are blue and I had already mixed about six colors for these cookies so I took a shortcut and used my wonderful edible ink markerfor the blue part of the eyes. I just waited for the icing to dry and then drew on the blue parts.

I also used the same blue edible ink markerto monogram the dog collar with a D, which is the first letter of the dog's name. I kept the icing on the dog simple since it took so long to make the many many camoflauge cookies. I can't even remember how many I made! :) I was also thinking that some people may not like too much icing on their cookies and would enjoy these cookies as well. Apparently I was wrong, because this group loved for the sweet royal icing to cover the whole cookie!

Gingerbread Cookies

I bake gingerbread cookies every year and each year I try a new recipe. Usually the recipes are similar and the outcome is almost the same. However, this year, the cookies were the best I have ever had. They were soft, but not too soft and had just the right taste.

I usually only eat one cookie to taste it and give the rest away to friends, neighbours and co-workers. Usually I don't have a problem giving them away and not keeping any for myself, but it was rather difficult this year.

If I had not packaged them all, (see below) so that they were ready to be given away, I probably would have eaten most of them.

I am just happy that they were enjoyed as I received many compliments, including those who said that they were the best gingerbread cookies they had ever tasted.

Now, I am wondering why they turned out so well. Was it because of the freezing process that the dough had to go through or was it just the overall recipe and method? I suppose it doesn't matter. All I know is that I will probably not be trying anymore gingerbread recipes. I have found a keeper.

The recipe for these fabulous gingerbread cookies is of course from Martha Stewart and can be found here.