Gingerbread Cookies

Wishing all my friends a Merry Christmas !!!

During every Christmas, gingerbread cookies was in my wishlist, but ended up baking some different varieties of cakes or cookies. The main reason why I didn't try out preparing these is because I didn't have gingerbread man cutter. This time when my bro visited me, he bought so many different varieties of cutters and from that bunch, I got this gingerbread man cutter. Felt very happy and quickly googled on some recipes and got this amazing recipe which requires less ingredients those are easily available in our kitchen and also that this is less time consuming dish.

The dough needs to be kept in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or it will be sticky. This ginger and spice bread cookies make perfect Christmas goodies to munch on and to gift the near and dear ones. The amount of cinnamon, cloves and ginger can be adjusted according to individual taste.

To make the cookies soft, bake it for lesser time and if you like it harder, then bake for little more time. At present, my house is filled with the aroma of spices from my baking sessions. Enjoy this Christmas with these deliciously crunchy cookies.

Ingredients:

1. All purpose flour- 3 Cups
2. Baking powder- 1 ½ tsp
3. Baking soda- ¼ tsp
4. Salt- a pinch
5. Cinnamon powder- 1 tsp
6. Cloves powder- ½ tsp
7. Ginger (grated)- 3 tbsp
8. Brown Sugar- 1 ½ Cup
9. Egg- 1 no
10. Butter- 6 tbsp

For Royal Icing:

1. Sugar- ½ Cup
2. Egg White- 1 no
3. Lemon juice- 1 tbsp

Method:

• Beat the egg whites till stiff peaks. In this add the lemon juice and icing sugar little by little and beat well using the blender till it forms smooth and shiny.
• Pour this in a piping bag and design on cookies.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Sieve the all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon powder, cloves powder thrice. Keep this aside.
3. Beat the egg in a glass bowl, add sugar and butter. Beat till the sugar gets dissolved.
4. Add the sieved flour mixture and mix well till blended and forms a smooth dough. Keep this dough in refrigerator for about 2 hrs.
5. Place the dough on a floured surface and roll using a rolling pin. Cut the rolled dough into desired shapes using cutter.
6. Place the shapes on a greased baking tray and bake for about 10- 15 minutes.
7. When it is done remove the cookies and place on a wire rack. Let it cool.
8. After the cookies are cooled decorate them using royal icing.