Gingerbread Hearts

Credit goes to my 12 year old daughter, Charley, for finding this recipe and baking up some amazingly incredible gingerbread cookies.

She was in the holiday mood and desperately wanted to make a traditional sweet treat.  She found this cookie recipe in one of her favorite cookbooks but sadly did not find a gingerbread man cutter anywhere in the house.  So we settled on heart shapes and we are all very pleased with the results.

These cookies , if eaten warm, have a wonderful moist and chewy center.  They pretty much melt in your mouth.  Once they cool they are crisp and crunchy, resembling a gingersnap in both texture and taste.

WARNING:  Let them cool at least 5 minutes in the pan before transferring them via spatula to a cooling rack or they will fall apart en-route.

Feel free to eat as-is or decorate with royal icing. Next time around my daughter has decided that using them as sandwich cookies and filling the middle with cream cheese frosting is the way to go.  I agree !!!

Thank-you, Charley :)

So get baking, people !


RECIPE:
adapted source recipe: Gingerbread Kids, Williams-Sonoma, Kids Baking

WHAT YOU NEED

2 3/4 CUPS all purpose flour
2 1/2 TSP baking powder
1 TABLESPOON ground ginger
1 1/2 TSP ground cinnamon
1/2 TSP ground nutmeg
1/4 TSP salt
1/2 CUP unsalted butter at room temperature
2/3 CUP firmly packed light brown sugar
1 TSP pure vanilla extract
1 LARGE egg at room temperature
1/3 CUP molasses

MAKE IT

IN MEDIUM BOWL, combine first 6 dry ingredient and stir with wooden spoon
IN BOWL OF STAND MIXER, combine butter, brown sugar and vanilla.
BEAT on MEDIUM speed for 3 minutes
SCRAPE down sides of bowl with spatula
ADD dry ingredients to butter mixture on low speed just until blended
PLACE dough onto lightly floured work surface
DIVIDE into 2 pieces, shape into a somewhat flat disc, cover in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 1 hour

PREHEAT oven to 350F
LINE 3 cookie sheets with parchment paper

ON lightly floured work surface, roll out chilled dough to 1/4 " thickness
CUT into shapes and with a spatula, transfer cookies to baking sheet
BAKE 10-12 minutes or until edges start to brown slightly
LET COOL on cookies sheets for 5 minutes
TRANSFER cookies to cooling rack
FROST as desired

ENJOY !