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Spicy Gingerbread Cookies

December 21st, 2010

After many of you asked for the recipe yesterday I figured I’d do a new post with my gingerbread recipe (I have it on my blog from a few years ago). These cookies aren’t you typical gingerbread men/women. If you don’t like spicy things, you will not like this version. This recipe has as least double the spices of most recipes and I always use blackstrap molasses to make the flavor even stronger. If you’re a fan of spicy gingerbread you will really appreciate the flavor in this version.

One of my favorite things about these gingerbread cookies is that they’re not too sweet. If you like your cookies sweeter you can ice them, but I think they’re perfect as is. As with most spicy baked items, they’re twice as good the next day and seem to get better with age. They also keep well compared to a lot of cookies so they make a great option for mailing (I just sent some to a family member in Afghanistan). Bake up some of these and some snickerdoodles and send them to a service member you know, they’ll appreciate the holiday cheer!

MOM’S SPICY GINGERBREAD COOKIES

1 1/2 (or 12 ounces) cups dark molasses *I use blackstrap
1 cup packed dark brown sugar (I use regular sugar)
1/2 cup cold water
1/3 cup butter
1 egg
6 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons allspice (freshly ground is best)
4 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cloves
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Mix molasses, brown sugar, egg, water and butter. Mix in remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Heat oven to 350. Roll dough 1/4 inch thick on floured* board. Cut with floured cookie cutter. Place about 2 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake until no indentation remains when touched, 10 to 12 minutes; cool. *TIP* If you like chewy cookies use confectioners sugar instead of flour when rolling out your dough

Note: Can roll dough 1/2 inch thick and cut with 2 1/2 inch round cookie cutter. Place about 1 1/2 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake about 15 minutes.

I use all organic ingredients when I make this, since we’re organic eaters. All of my organic spices come from Mountain Rose Herbs, and I get my flour/sugar from a local co-op in big 25 lb bags. This recipe is pretty good for you as far as cookies go, the blackstrap molasses will give you a healthy dose of iron, manganese, copper, potassium, calcium, magnesium, B6 and many more nutrients.

All of the various spices added to the cookies are also super healthy and contain all kinds of vitamins, minerals and trace elements. Here are links for the health benefits of the various spices: cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and allspice. A lot of these spices actually help your body fight off the colds and flu, what a wonderfully tasty way to do so. If you want to make the recipe even healthier try swapping out some of the flour for white whole wheat flour. I’ve successfully swapped out half of of the flour for freshly ground soft wheat flour.

I was going to do gingerbread cookies as my Friday Favorite this week since they’re my favorite cookie, but I decided to write about them today. I will willingly pass over any other kind of cookie out there for a spicy gingerbread man. Second in line for my favorite cookie is the Date Pinwheel cookie, after that spritz or cookie press cookies, and most things after that I don’t eat because I’m not a big fan. My least favorite cookie has to be butter cookies, perhaps it’s the icing, I’ve never been a fan of them even when I was a kid.

What’s your favorite holiday cookie? second favorite? third?

27 Comments to “Spicy Gingerbread Cookies”
  1. […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by mark mile, Susy Morris. Susy Morris said: Spicy #Gingerbread #Cookies http://goo.gl/fb/OpZaE #holidays #recipe […]

    Reply to Tweets that mention Spicy Gingerbread Cookie Recipe | Chiot’s Run — Topsy.com's comment

  2. Dan on December 21, 2010 at 5:27 am

    My favorite cookie is any that are in front of me :-) Your Mom’s recipe sounds good, I’ll have to try them. You always have good recipes.

    Reply to Dan's comment

  3. kristin @ going country on December 21, 2010 at 8:51 am

    Anything anyone else makes. I don’t have the patience for making all those individual little cutouts–or even dropping dough on the pan–and cycling pans in and out of the oven, but I LOVE cookies.

    Reply to kristin @ going country's comment

    • Joshua on December 21, 2010 at 1:05 pm

      One thing I learned from making shortbread cookies is that if you don’t want to cut out individual cookies, you can probably do fine by just rolling the entire thing out into a sheet and baking it, then cutting it up afterwards (or just breaking off pieces and eating it). Don’t know if that would work with this recipe, but it might be worth a try.

      Reply to Joshua's comment

      • Susy on December 23, 2010 at 9:43 am

        It does work with this recipe. What you want to do is chill the dough for 2 hours, then form into rolls wrapped in parchment or was paper and put in the freezer for an hour or two, then cut into 1/4-1/2 in slices and bake. They work beautifully and there is no flour to clean off the counter!

        to Susy's comment

  4. Deborah Auen on December 21, 2010 at 9:22 am

    Great post…..those cookies just put a smile on my face…I really like oatmeal raisin cookies, however won’t pass up a well made cookie of any kind…I need to check out your links for the natural ingriedients.Also I know this was a much earlier post however I just recieved all of my seeds from the seed company you blogged about and a nice seed catalog:) BOY am I HAPPY:) MERRY~CHRISTMAS!!!!

    Reply to Deborah Auen's comment

  5. Kim on December 21, 2010 at 11:02 am

    I like to make gingerbread cookies at Christmas too – although mine aren’t quite as spicy. Overall, though, my favorite (at any time of year!) is oatmeal-chocolate chip.
    Merry Christmas!

    Reply to Kim's comment

  6. Adrian on December 21, 2010 at 11:40 am

    Should the butter be soft or melted?

    My all time favorite Christmas cookies isn’t really a cookie, I guess, they are teeny tiny pecan pies my mother makes. The are cookie-sized, though. I also adore spritz cookies. At the moment, I am nibbling on pebernødder that I made using lots of extra spice.

    Reply to Adrian's comment

    • Susy on December 21, 2010 at 11:56 am

      It can be either, I often just use butter softened on the counter, but sometimes our house is pretty cold in the winter so I put it on the stove vent to soften/melt further. It doesn’t seem to affect the final dough either way.

      Mr Chiots loves those pecan pies too, often called Pecan Tassies.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  7. Johua on December 21, 2010 at 1:12 pm

    When you say ginger, do you mean fresh, grated ginger?

    Reply to Johua's comment

    • Susy on December 21, 2010 at 1:29 pm

      I usually use powdered ginger, but I keep wanting to try using freshly grated as it’s always so good in recipes.

      Reply to Susy's comment

      • Miranda on December 23, 2010 at 10:25 am

        I put in some freshly grated ginger to my cookies – not overly noticeable, but you do get the occasional ‘zing, hey that’s fresh ginger’ pocket.

        to Miranda's comment

  8. Sarah H on December 21, 2010 at 3:22 pm

    Just mixed some up. Unfortunately, I ran out of ginger so I was only able to put 2 tsp in–

    Reply to Sarah H's comment

  9. Grace on December 21, 2010 at 4:15 pm

    It’s good to know other folks are spice happy too! (I often look at recipes and think, “One-half tsp. of ginger? Are they kidding?”)

    I so enjoy your blog. Thank you for sharing.

    Reply to Grace's comment

    • Susy on December 23, 2010 at 9:45 am

      I know what you mean, I often double or triple the spices in recipes for spicy things, especially cinnamon and ginger as we’re spicy food lovers!

      Reply to Susy's comment

  10. melissa on December 21, 2010 at 5:44 pm

    I am totally addicted to my mom’s sugar cookies, which she makes in the shape of Christmas trees with green and red sprinkles. I like them well done on the edges. :D

    It’s a tossup between that, cherry winks, and russian tea cakes. I love them all and my mom usually makes a hefty batch of each. :D

    but man, I love anything with molasses.

    Reply to melissa's comment

  11. Morgan G on December 21, 2010 at 6:15 pm

    Someone was kind enough to clue me in to the delicioiusness that is the Rum Ball this holiday season. I’ve made batches with bourbon as well and I devour them with equal gumption.

    Thanks for the tip on using confectioner’s sugar to make a more chewy Gingerbread cookie, Susy. That’s the only way I like them!

    Reply to Morgan G's comment

  12. Marcia on December 22, 2010 at 2:29 am

    My favorite cookie? The king of all cookies….the shortbread cookie, or as I prefer to call them, butter cookies. Butter makes everything better.

    Reply to Marcia's comment

    • Susy on December 23, 2010 at 9:44 am

      My dad also loves the butter or shortbread cookies, they’re his faves.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  13. MAYBELLINE on December 22, 2010 at 2:42 am

    I love shortbread and gingersnaps.

    Reply to MAYBELLINE's comment

  14. Miranda on December 22, 2010 at 9:04 pm

    Just so you know, your gingerbread recipe saved our gingerbread house. A. it’s still not made, but B. we’ll make it tomorrow with the dough i made from your recipe. My tried and true dough just didn’t cut the ‘much more humid than the high desert of Oregon’ conditions of Austin and my wall frames were all soggy. I’d made a backup batch of dough using your recipe and formed new walls that are puffy, hard, and delicious! (i snuck some other bites from unnecessary star cookies).
    Thanks again for your posts! They’re life (and gingerbread hen-house) savers!

    My favorite cookies are my chocolate variety cookies and least favorite are either shortbread or generic sugar cookies.

    Reply to Miranda's comment

    • Susy on December 22, 2010 at 11:35 pm

      Great, so glad they worked, can’t wait to see a photo of the finished product.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  15. Vegetable Garden Cook on December 25, 2010 at 12:20 am

    If only I had the patience! They’re beautiful.

    Reply to Vegetable Garden Cook's comment

  16. Real Pumpkin Pie | Eat Outside The Bag on January 16, 2012 at 9:59 pm

    […] holidays. I’ll pass up just about any other kind of sweet in favor of it (except for maybe an extra spicy gingerbread man). I always double this recipe because one batch never lasts long around here. I’ll admit to […]

    Reply to Real Pumpkin Pie | Eat Outside The Bag's comment

  17. Rochelle on February 20, 2012 at 10:39 pm

    Gingerbread cookie recipe looks yummy. You also took nice pictures.I also have a daycare and will try this recipe for lunch with my daycare babies.

    Reply to Rochelle's comment

  18. Miranda on December 11, 2012 at 11:30 pm

    Well, this recipe is delicious. Again!
    Though….. it is somewhat humorous when you have the dough chilling in the fridge and suddenly remember that ALL your cookie cutters AND your rolling pin are packed…..

    I love my gingerbread “glob” cookies!

    Reply to Miranda's comment

    • Susy on December 12, 2012 at 8:54 am

      Whatever works, cookies taste good in shapes or in globs!

      Reply to Susy's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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