Cookie Craft Christmas

ROLLED GINGERBREAD COOKIES

These cookies have a mild gingerbread flavor, and they make the kitchen smell wonderful while they're baking.

Yield
2 1/2 -inch cookies: about 48
3 1/2 -inch cookies: about 37
4 1/2 -inch cookies: about 18

Ingredients
5 cups all-purpose fl our
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Zest of 1 orange (optional)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter,
softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 cup molasses

1 Whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, salt, and orange zest (if you're using it) in a medium bowl.

2 Cream together the butter and sugar with your mixer until light and fluffy. Add the egg and molasses and mix until well blended.

3 With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until the two are thoroughly blended.

4 Turn dough onto a work surface and divide into three equal portions. Form each one into a rough disk. Now you're ready to roll, chill, and cut out cookie shapes. Find complete rolling and cutting instructions on page 9.

5 Preheat the oven to 350¡F.

6 After you've rolled and cut the dough and the cookies are on parchment-lined cookie sheets, bake them on the middle rack of your oven for 12 to 16 minutes or until the cookies start to turn a deeper brown around the edges.

7 Cool the cookies completely before decorating.

Excerpted from Cookie Craft Christmas by Valerie Peterson & Janice Fryer
Copyright (c)2009
Used with permission from Storey Publishing