Light Spice Cutout Cookies

Sorry, this isn’t a very good photo, but I wanted to share the great ginger cookies that I made for a cookie decorating party that my boss hosted. I’m including here the recipe for the spice cookies, which was my contribution to the party. My coworker made sugar cookies and the royal icing, and my boss made some sugar cookies. An assortment of people decorated the cookies, and we all had a really great time!

I’ve made cookies one other time with the flooded royal icing, and I like all the creative designs that you can make with this type of icing. We had lots of colors, which was great. I think I was a little heavy handed with some of the icing, so they took a lot longer for the icing to harden. That’s ok, you just need patience. 

I don’t make a lot of roll out cookies, but these turned out really well. They don’t have a lot of molasses, so they aren’t as sticky as gingerbread cookies sometimes are. Do make sure that you chill the dough, or they will be too hard to cut out. Don’t reroll the dough too many times, or it will get tough. This recipe made just over 3 dozen cookies, and that total number will vary depending on the size of your cookie cutters. These cookies were a great canvas for icing, but they were excellent plain, straight out of the oven.

Light Spice Cutout Cookies

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup shortening

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1-1/2 teaspoons ginger

1/2 teaspoon allspice

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 tablespoons molasses

3 cups flour

3 tablespoons cornstarch

In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter, shortening, brown sugar, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and salt until light. Stir in the egg and molasses. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour and cornstarch. Beat just until the dough comes together. 

Divide the dough in two halves, shaping each half into a disk. Wrap each dough disk in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least an hour. 

 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats. 

Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll the dough on a lightly floured surface about 1/8” thick. (You can roll the dough thicker if you’d like.) Cut into desired shapes. Use a small spatula to transfer the cookies to the prepared baking sheets. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Bake for 9-10 minutes, until firm. Allow to cool on the baking sheets for several minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Frost as desired. My friend from work actually made the icing, but I would suggest using the tutorial on Annie’s Eats .

Recipe from King Arthur Flour