Woodland Gingerbread Cookies

I'm not gonna lie, I freaked out a little bit when my mom surprised me with these woodland cookie cutters she picked up at Ikea! If you follow me on Instagram, you know that our Christmas tree is woodland themed, so I pretty much had no choice but to make cookies today.

A lot of times, gingerbread cookies can be hit or miss for me. They either look really pretty but taste like bland cardboard or look hideous and taste alright. I decided to keep decorating to a minimum (because let's be honest, gum drops don't belong on cookies) and utilized some chocolate flavored icing from a previous post, which I must admit was a better idea in theory because this icing doesn't harden all to well (only caused a minor breakdown whilst decorating).

These cookies not only look super cute but perhaps even more importantly they taste ammmazzinngg since you can't really re-roll dough I used the uncut dough, rolled it in sugar and baked it along with the others. The key to making gingerbread cookies that will roll out easily and won't spread during the baking process is to make sure the dough is chilled! Believe me, it will save you a lot of heartache.

Gingerbread Cookies

makes about 24 regular sized cookies
Recipe from last years post

1/2 cup shortening
1 cup light brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
4 TBS molasses
2 and 1/4 cup sifted AP flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 white sugar (to coat cookies)

Directions:

1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2.Cream shortening and add sugar gradually and cream together until light and fluffy. Blend in beaten egg and molasses.

3.Sift flour together with slat, baking soda, and spices and stir into reamed mixture. Set in the fridge to chill (1 hour or more) then roll using the tiniest bit of flour (so the rolling pin won't stick) and cut into desired shapes. Place carefully on cookie sheet and bake for 15-12 min.

4.Remove cookie sheet from oven and allow the cookies to stand until the cookies are firm enough to move to a wire rack. After cookies are cool you may decorate them any way you like (I used left over icing from these cupcakes).