From my great-grandma's recipe box, these old-fashioned crispy gingerbread cookies are sure to get you in the holiday spirit. Frost with optional lemon icing (see notes) or your favorite frosting!
Prep Time30 minutesmins
Cook Time10 minutesmins
Icing Time1 hourhr
Total Time1 hourhr40 minutesmins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Gingerbread Cookies, Gingerbread Cut Out Cookies, Old Fashioned Gingerbread Cookies
Servings: 35cookies*
Ingredients
2/3cvegetable shortening
1csugar
1beaten egg
1/4cmolasses
2cflour
3/4tspsalt
1tspbaking soda
1tspground cinnamon
1tspground ginger
1tspground cloves
Optional Lemon Icing (see notes)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or in a large bowl using a hand mixer), cream shortening and sugar until well combined.
Add egg and molasses and beat until well combined.
Add dry ingredients and mix until no bits of flour are remaining.
On a floured surface, roll dough out to about 1/8-in thickness. Cut as desired, and move cookies to a cookie sheet. Gather dough scraps into a ball and roll out again. Repeat until all dough has been used. Note: this dough can be a bit delicate, so be patient and careful as you're cutting and moving them.
Bake for about 10 minutes (less if your cookies are quite small, more if they are larger shapes). You don't want them to get too dark, but a little browning on the bottoms and edges is fine.
Cool on cookie sheets for about 5 minutes, then move to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
Frost as desired (see notes for the icing I used in the photos). Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week, or freeze for up to 2 months.
Notes
*Depending on what size cookie cutter you use, this recipe can make up to 4 dozen cookies or so.Optional Lemon Icing:1 c powdered sugar1/2 tsp vanilla1T lemon juice (or milk)Mix all together until well-combined. Icing should be nice and thick: If you drizzle it into the bowl, it should hold its shape a bit before sinking back into the rest of the icing. Using a piping bag with a small round tip (I used Ateco #4), pipe icing onto cookies. Let them sit at room temperature uncovered for 24 hours (yes, really!) to dry completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week, or freeze for up to 2 months.Depending on how much icing you use on your cookies, you may need multiple batches of icing. I used 3 batches for the designs in the photos.