I wanted to make gingerbread cookies the other day, but all of the recipes I found said that you had to chill the gingerbread dough for at least a few hours or overnight. Blah. Try explaining that to a toddler.
Luckily, my friend Michelle sent me a recipe that required no chilling whatsoever. I tweaked it a little bit to fit personal preference and what we had in the house, but this recipe is still easy-peasy and the cookies it makes are pretty addictive.
No-Chill Gingerbread Cookies
- 3/4 cup shortening
- 1 cup sugar (we used turbinado sugar because I like the crunch)
- 2 eggs
- 4 Tbsp molasses
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 2 1/4 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream shortening and sugar. Add the eggs and molasses. Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the mixture.
If you’re using a Kitchenaid mixer, I recommend starting with the regular paddle and then switching to the dough hook when you add the dry ingredients. You’ll have to use a spatula to scrape the sides a couple of times, but it will be easier on your mixer’s motor. Gingerbread dough is pretty tough stuff.
Roll onto a floured board and cut into shapes using cookie cutters. Michelle shared an ingenious tip with me: roll your dough out onto parchment paper and when you cut the shapes, just peel away the excess so you don’t have to worry about messing the cookies up by moving them. If you have extra dough, just roll them up into balls, flatten into circles, and sprinkle with a little bit more cinnamon and powdered sugar for extra sweet and spicy bites.
Bake the cookies for about 8-10 minutes or until they spring back when lightly touched. Spend the baking time having a dance party in the kitchen.
Cool the cookies completely after you remove them from the oven. Once the cookies are cool, feel free to frost them. If you want to use the lazy mom method for your toddler (like I did), put about a cup of powdered sugar into a ziploc bag and add warm water about a 1/2 tsp at a time. You really don’t need very much water to turn powdered sugar into icing. Mush it up by squeezing it with your hands until it’s the consistency that you want and then seal the bag and cut a teeny-tiny piece off of one of the bottom corners. Let your toddler use this makeshift pastry bag to decorate her cookies.
Enjoy!
