Soft Ginger Cutouts Recipes

GINGERBREAD CUTOUT COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Add egg and molasses. Combine the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate until easy to handle, about 4 hours or overnight., Preheat oven to 350°. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with floured 2-1/2-in. cookie cutters. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. , Bake until edges are firm, 8-10 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. Tint some of the frosting red and some green; leave remaining frosting plain. Decorate cookies.

CHEWY & SOFT GINGERBREAD COOKIES

Steps:

• Beat butter, sugar, and molasses in a stand mixer (or very large bowl with a hand mixer) until smooth. Mix in the egg, then add the vinegar, baking soda, salt, and spices. Mix until combined (mixture may look a bit curdled, that's normal.)
• Mix in flour, 1 cup at a time, until dough forms. Divide dough into two sections.
• Lay out a sheet of Reynolds Kitchens Parchment Paper with SmartGrid on your work surface. Add half the cookie dough and add a second sheet of parchment paper on the top. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough to 1/4" thick, in between the pieces of parchment. Periodically, gently lift the parchment off the layer to make sure it's not sticking. Repeat with second half of dough.
• Chill the rolled out dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 375°F. Line two cookie sheets with Reynolds Kitchens Parchment Paper with SmartGrid. Cut shapes from chilled dough, placing on the prepared pans. Chill another 10 minutes before baking.
• Bake for 8-12 minutes, depending on cookie size. Re-roll any scraps of dough and re-chill and repeat.
• Cool cookies completely before frosting.
• While cookies are cooling, make the frosting. Add meringue powder, powdered sugar, vanilla, and water to the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat until peaks form and it's lost it's glossy sheen, about 7-10 minutes. Add a bit more water as needed for piping consistency.
• At this point you can color the frosting if you want, using food coloring. Frost cookies and top with sprinkles. (I used a small piping tip in a disposable pastry bag.) Let set for at least an hour before stacking.

SOFT SPICED GINGERBREAD CUT OUT COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, whisk the flour, ginger, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices and set aside. In a stand mixer beat the sugar and butter on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the molasses, egg, vanilla and vinegar until thoroughly combined, about 1 minute. On low speed, gradually add the flour mixture until just combined. Divide the dough in half, shape into two balls, and wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 2 and up to 2 days. Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 375°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment. Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll it on a lightly floured piece of parchment until it's about 1/8 inch thick. Put the parchment and dough onto another cookie sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Remove excess dough from around the cutouts and transfer them with a spatula to the prepared sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Bake one sheet at a time until the cookies begin to darken around the edges, 6 to 8 minutes. Do not over bake. Cool on the sheet on a rack for about 15 minutes. Transfer the cookies directly to the rack and cool completely. Decorate cooled cookies with royal icing and colored sugar.

SOFT GINGERBREAD COOKIES

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, mix together the molasses, brown sugar, water and butter until smooth. Combine the flour, baking soda, allspice, ginger, cloves and cinnamon, stir them into the wet mixture until all of the dry is absorbed. Cover the dough and chill for at least 3 hours.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out into desired shapes. Place cookies 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from the cookie sheets to cool on wire racks.

SOFT GINGER CUT-OUTS

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups of the white sugar, molasses and coffee.
• Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, ground nutmeg, ground cloves and ground ginger. Add the flour mixture to the molasses mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate dough for 2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray.
• Roll chilled dough on a floured surface to 1/4 inch thick. Cut with 3 or 4 inch sized cookie cutters. Place cookies on the prepared baking sheets.
• Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Let cookies cool on wire racks.
• To Make Frosting: Combine the remaining 1 1/2 cups white sugar, the water and vinegar in a heavy saucepan. Cover and bring to a boil. Uncover and cook over medium-high heat until a candy thermometer reads 234-240 degrees F (112-115 degrees C), softball stage. This should take about 5 to 10 minutes. Remove form the heat and stir in the marshmallows until smooth.
• In a clean bowl beat the egg whites until frothy. Gradually beat in the sugar/marshmallow mixture and continue beating, on high, for 7 to 8 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Frost the cooled cookies. Let the frosting harden before storing the cookies in an airtight container.

GINGERBREAD CUTOUT COOKIES (GLUTEN-FREE, DAIRY-FREE OPTION)

Steps:

• To a small mixing bowl, add your dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and nutmeg) and whisk together.
• To a large mixing bowl, add your butter, brown sugar and molasses and beat them together with a mixer till creamy. Add your egg and vanilla and briefly mix in.
• Pour your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and stir/fold together. Keep folding till you have one consistent cookie dough.
• Place a large piece of saran wrap on your counter and put your cookie dough in the middle. Wrap the saran wrap around the dough till it's covered entirely. Gently push your dough into a thick, disc-like shape (not a large ball). Place in the fridge and chill for at least 2 hours.
• After 2 hours, remove your dough from the fridge. Preheat your oven to 350 and spray two pans with non-stick spray (or line with parchment paper).
• To a large area on your counters, sprinkle flour across the top so the dough won't stick. Unwrap your dough and place it on your flour-covered counter. Sprinkle a little more flour across the top of the dough, to prevent it from sticking to your rolling pin.
• Roll your dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness, all around. Continue to sprinkle more flour on top if it gets too sticky.
• Using a cookie cutter, cut the dough into shapes. Use a spatula to remove the cookie cutouts and place it onto your pans. I recommend placing similarly sized cookie cutouts on the same pan, for consistent baking results.
• Bake for 7-12 minutes, or till the edges are set and the cookies are cooked through. Smaller cookie cutouts will take closer to 7-8 minutes, medium will take 8-10 minutes, and large will take 10-12 minutes.
• For the leftover cookie dough, you can push it together and re-roll it with your rolling pin (on lightly floured counters again) and cut more cookies out again. I recommend only re-rolling your dough two times.
• After your cookies have cooled entirely, it's time to decorate! Top them with your favorite frosting and sprinkles, and devour!

SOFT GINGER CUTOUTS

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine the molasses, water and vinegar. Combine the flour, soda, ginger, cinnamon and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture alternately with molasses mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or until easy to handle., On a heavily floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 2-1/2-in. cookie cutter. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. , Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until edges are browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.