1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
1 cup unsulfured molasses
6 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
4 teaspoons ground ginger
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
Raisins, dragées, and/or red hot candies for decoration (optional)
Royal Icing for decoration (optional)
In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and molasses. In another bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt. Stir flour mixture into butter mixture. Divide dough into thirds and wrap each third in plastic wrap. Chill for about 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350 F. Roll dough 1/8 inch thick between two pieces of waxed paper. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Transfer shapes to ungreased cookie sheets. If desired, decorate with raisins, dragées, and/or red hot candies. Refrigerate about 15 minutes. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until crisp but not dark. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 1 minute, then remove to wire racks to cool completely. If desired, decorate with Royal Icing.
Note: If you are going to use the cookies for decorations, make a hole for the cord or hook by poking the cookies with a toothpick or skewer as soon as they come out of the oven. Source: based on a recipe from Martha Stewart. We just toned down the black pepper a little bit. Martha uses 1 teaspoon of black pepper but we found it was a little bit too much for the kids. Some kids, however, really prefer Martha's original, so to each his own! If you'd like to kick it up, add the whole teaspoon of black pepper.
A cookie baker in maryland Dec 24, 2007
Would make this again.
I love thease cookies
Caroline H in New York Dec 21, 2007
Would make this again.
Nice and crisp. Great for decorating the tree. I think I'll be baking the last batch a bit shorter in time to see if i can get a nice soft cookie for the kids. I had no issue with saltiness, as I used 1 tsp. I used this same recipe last year for my tree ornaments and loved them then too!
David & Kyeung-Hee in Philadelphia & Korea Dec 18, 2007
Would make this again.
This was an excellent base recipe for my gingerbread demon cookies. (I call them demon rather than men, because in addition to the ingredients in the recipe, I also added several extremely hot additions, including Blair's Possible Side Effects sauce, Sweet Death sauce, Jersey Death sauce, and Death Rain Nitro spice.) I also included about 1/4 cup spiced ginger preserves, and slightly more of all of the spices than listed. I put foil over the baking sheet, and there was no problem with sticking at all. The taste and texture are both excellent! Two thumbs up! (Well, four, actually, since there are two of us!)
A cookie baker in Virginia Dec 17, 2007
Would make this again.
These were very good. I only added 1 tsp of salt, but other wise followed the recipe. I measured out the flour and set 1 cup aside then mixed the remaining 5 cups of flour with the other ingredients.
I used the extra cup to work with the dough until it was the perfect texture. These cookies are very flavorful!
Dec 15, 2007
Would not make this again.
Wonderful tasting!!!! I would definately make them again if it wasn't such a difficulty to get them off the cookie sheet. Any suggestions?
A cookie baker in Southern Florida Dec 11, 2007
Would make this again.
I made them for the first time two Christmases ago and fell in love with the recipe; they're the perfect mix of crisp and chewy, and very spicy as well. They may not be super sweet, but I can't understand how people are saying they're too salty. These are brilliant, plain and simple.
martha in Tacoma, WA Dec 10, 2007
Would not make this again.
Very disappointing results. This was the first time I have made gingerbread cookies so I wasn't familiar with the recipe. I'm hoping that there was a mistake in the recipe - it called for 6 cups of flour other recipes I've found only called for 3 cups. Which would explain a lot - the dough was very sandy and hard to work work and once the cookies were baked they were very blah tasting. They were so bad in fact, even my dog wouldn't eat them.
rocknkuchen in forest knolls, ca Dec 9, 2007
Would make this again.
Made the recipe exactly except used 1/4 tsp. of black pepper instead of 1/2.
They came out great. The finicky 3 year old even loved them and loved helping. Some family didn't "like gingerbread", but tried them and changed their tune.
All in all a great success. Nice recipe.
A cookie baker Dec 3, 2007
Would make this again.
This is my family's all time favorite cookie recipe!
A cookie baker Nov 18, 2007
Would make this again.
PERFECTION!!!!!
This was my first time baking gingerbread cookies and they came out perfect. The spices are just right, not too overpowering. Although I substituted ground cloves with nutmeg and added just 1 teaspoon of salt. Do not let the pepper scare you away for this recipe, it adds to the spiciness and you can’t even detect the pepper. Baking the cookies for 8-9 minutes makes the cookies soft and delicious. You will get great results if you follow this recipe.
