| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 4 hr 35 min |
| Active: | 45 min |
| Yield: | 5 dozen cookies |
Ingredients
- 1 cup vegetable shortening
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup molasses
- 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 to 5 cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus more for flouring
- Nonstick cooking spray, for the baking sheets and rolling pin
- 3 large egg whites, room temperature (or equivalent meringue powder)
- 2 1/2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
- Food color, for tinting, optional
Instructions
- For the cookies: In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the shortening and granulated sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the molasses, vinegar and egg and beat on high speed to blend thoroughly.
- Sift together the ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, salt and 4 cups of the flour in a separate bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed shortening and sugar and mix to make a firm, manageable dough, adding more flour if needed. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly spray 2 baking sheets with cooking spray.
- Spray a rolling pin with cooking spray and lightly flour your work surface. Roll the dough to 1/8-inch thickness and cut it into desired shapes with a knife or cookie cutters. (You can reroll the scraps to make a few more cookies.) Place the cookies 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets and bake for 5 to 6 minutes. Cool the cookies for 2 minutes on the baking sheets before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough.
- For the royal icing: Beat the egg whites and 1/3 cup of the confectioners’ sugar with a wire whisk or the whisk attachment of your mixer. Add another 1/3 cup sugar and the cream of tartar and beat 10 minutes longer. Add the remaining sugar and beat until the mixture is smooth and thick. The icing can be tinted as desired with food coloring.
- Ice the cooled cookies with the royal icing as desired.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 60 servings |
| Calories | 116 |
| Total Fat | 4 g |
| Saturated Fat | 1 g |
| Carbohydrates | 19 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Sugar | 12 g |
| Protein | 1 g |
| Cholesterol | 3 mg |
| Sodium | 55 mg |
Reviews
Best gingerbread cookie recipe ever. Strong, well balanced flavors. Easy to follow. Will be returning to this recipe next year
Doubled this recipe and used 5 cups (x2) AP Flour. Refrigerated overnight and rolled out with as much flour on rolling surface and sprinkled on dough as if rolling pie dough. Came together just fine at about 3/16 thickness. Wonderful flavor and texture—even my toddler grand babes love them!
Froze them and decorated a few days later. Will make again.
Froze them and decorated a few days later. Will make again.
I use this recipe ever time I make gingerbread cookies. They are delicious.
Crazy amount of Clive’s…way too much. I used 1/4 teas. and there was still a bit too much. I added considerably more flour than 5 cups and the dough was still super sticky, even after chilling overnight. So very difficult to handle while rolling out. And the bake time? Waaaay too short. I baked for 10 min. and the edges were a little crisp, the rest quite soft. This cookie was also too sweet for my taste. This recipe is a total miss as far as I’m concerned.
As other reviewers stated, I needed the 5 cups of flour and I refrigerated the dough overnight. They came out a little soft but hard enough to stand up to the decorating, etc. Perfect texture and spiciness! Everyone loved the cookies and had fun decorating them. One thing we did that wasn’t in the directions was freezing the sheets of cookies for 2 minutes before baking. It helped keep the cookies from losing their shapes. I would definitely recommend this recipe. For the royal icing, I used pasteurized egg whites (they come in quart cartons like half and half) to avoid any chance of salmonella poisoning. It worked perfectly following the directions she provided.
These were delicious and pretty simple to make! Plus they are not too spicy so the kids really enjoyed them! We are adding this as our new Christmas tradition!
Love this recipe! Been making these cookies for a few years now. For a dash of more spice, I add a bit of cayenne. My kids, without a doubt, say it’s their fav cookie recipe!
Made a test batch without the icing. Made a powdered sugar frosting for grandkids. Thomas asked if I’d make more as it is the best cookie ever. Making a double batch now. Merry Christmas from Athens GA
Love this recipe for taste, tender chewy-ness of cookies and ease of preparation. As I didn’t have enough molasses, I used some King Syrup. I borrowed someone else’s hint to wrap the disks in plastic wrap and rolled out still in plastic. Easier and didn’t use more flour that may have made them tougher.
I would suggest rolling out the dough between 2 pieces of plastic wrap rather than greasing the rolling pin with a bit of flour on your rolling surface.