Snowy Scene Gingerbread Cookies

A round cutter and three colors of royal icing are all you need to make these Snowy Scene Gingerbread Cookies.

A cool 3-D effect on the cookie is created by adding the tree and a few additional snowflakes after the basecoat has dried. These are fun to make and there are so many design options depending on what colors you choose. Using black icing for the background would give you a night scene and you could even add a few gold dots for stars to the sky. A snowman would also be a cute and easy to pipe free-hand.

Here's how I decorated them and my favorite Gingerbread Cookie recipe:

Outline and flood the cookies with blue royal icing and immediately add different sized dots of white using medium consistency icing and a #1 tip. Let the cookies dry completely before moving onto the next step.

Using medium consistency green royal icing, outline and fill a tree in the center of the cookie.

Immediately add a few dots of medium consistency white icing on the tree and outline and fill a snowy bank under the tree.

The final step is to add a brown trunk with medium consistency royal icing and a #1 tip.

Let the cookies dry completely before serving or packaging.

Gingerbread Cookie Dough
6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
4 teaspoons ground ginger
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon finely ground pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 large eggs
1 cup unsulfured molasses

Sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl. Set aside.

Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until fluffy. Mix in spices and salt, then eggs and molasses. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Divide dough into thirds; wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to a 1/4-inch thick. With cookie cutters, cut into desired shapes. Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.

Bake cookies until crisp but not dark, 10 to 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

Gingerbread People

These gingerbread people are cute, bright and fun to make. Creating them will make your house smell fantastic and inject you with holiday cheer.

I used my favorite gingerbread recipe and a 6-inch cutter to make them. After baking, I made a big batch of royal icing and just got creative and tried to give the gingerbread people a bit of personality. I hope you give these a try, it really is fun.

Here's my recipe for royal icing:

Royal Icing
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons meringue powder
6 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Food coloring, optional

In a large bowl combine meringue powder, water and lemon juice and stir until meringue powder is dissolved. Add powdered sugar and with an electric mixer on low speed, beat until evenly moistened. Then beat on high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form. Divide and tint as desired and add water a few drops at a time to get desired consistency.

And, here's how I decorated the Gingerbread People:

I started off by using piping consistency royal icing to add hair to the people.

For the pants, I outlined the shape with piping consistency royal icing and added three dots for buttons. After letting the icing dry for about 5 minutes, I filled the pants in with flood consistency icing in the same color.

For the dress, I outlined the shape and stripe with piping consistency blue royal icing. After the icing dried for a bit I filled in the dress with flood consistency blue royal icing and then immediately dropped in the white dots and stripe using flood consistency white royal icing.

I added some red detail to the dress with piping consistency icing. I also outlined and flooded the feet with green royal icing and outlined and filled the face and hands with tan royal icing. Two drops of blue for the eyes and a red mouth finish her off.

For a raised effect like the little red button on this girl's pants, add the drop of red royal icing after the base coat has dried.

This guy's "v" neck sweater was made by outlining the shape of the sweater and the neck and arm stripes with piping consistency red royal icing and then immediately filling in the rest of the sweater with flood consistency green royal icing.

Gingerbread

Gingerbread cookie dough chilling in the refrigerator.

Today I'm creating some sample gingerbread snowflake cookies for our cookie box presale on December 2nd. The scent of spicy gingerbread is just the thing to get me in the spirit of happy holiday baking.

I've experimented with lots of recipes and my favorite is this one from Martha Stewart. The dough is forgiving and sturdy yet tender and delicious. The addition of a teaspoon of fine ground black pepper is unexpected but adds a nice spicy dimension.

I also like that one batch yields more than three dozen 3-inch cookies.

Gingerbread Cookie Dough
 6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
4 teaspoons ground ginger
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon finely ground pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 large eggs
1 cup unsulfured molasses

Sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl. Set aside.

Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until fluffy. Mix in spices and salt, then eggs and molasses. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Divide dough into thirds; wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to a 1/4-inch thick. With cookie cutters, cut into desired shapes. Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.

Bake cookies until crisp but not dark, 10 to 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.