The GFCF Recipe Experience: Gingerbread Cookies

The note came home on Friday, along with a clean milk carton and a note from Olivia's teacher - can you make something for Olivia so that she can participate in decorating a gingerbread house with all the other children?



Not a problem. How about...gingerbread!



This was a new one for me. While I have enjoyed gingerbread before, it was never a holiday staple in our family. So then the question was, what recipe should I use?



And that's when Julia gave me the book she had found while unpacking the Christmas boxes - a Gooseberry Patch Christmas Holiday Sampler. And there, on page 117, I found what I needed.



I was really impressed with how simple these were to make. I was even more impressed with how good they were. So were the kids, who literally had some for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!



And that wonderful smell coming from the oven as they bake...it must be the holidays.





GINGERBREAD COOKIES

Adapted from a recipe found in the Gooseberry Patch Christmas Book 8.







Ingredients



1/2 cup GFCF shortening I used Earthbalance Buttery Sticks

2 1/2 cups GF all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1 large egg

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves



For the powdered sugar frosting:



1 cup powdered sugar

1/4 tsp GF vanilla extract

1 Tbsp CF milk



Combine the flour and xanthan gum in a bowl and set aside.



Beat the shortening until softened. Add about half of the flour mixture and the remaining ingredients and beat until thoroughly combined. Gradually add in the remaining flour.



Divide the dough in half, cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.



Preheat oven to 375°.



Roll out each half of dough to 1/8" to 1/4" thickness. Using a gingerbread man cookie cutter, cut out the cookies and place about 1" - 2" apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Continue to collect and reroll the scraps until you've cut out as many gingerbread men as you can. For a gingerbread house, just cut out six pieces to fit the four sides of the house and the roof.



Bake the cookies at 375° for 7 to 8 minutes or until the edges are firm. Remove from the oven and immediately place the cookies on a wire rack to cool.



To make the frosting, combine the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and milk until a smooth consistency is reached. If the icing seems too firm, add more milk a little at a time until the consistency is more fluid but not runny (like mine in the photo - I added about another Tbsp of milk and that was too much). Place the icing in a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip and pipe the frosting on to the cookies.



If you don't own a pastry bag, simply put the icing into a small plastic bag and snip a tiny piece off one corner of the bag. Pipe the icing through the hole on to the cookies.



Toppings. There are plenty of GFCF candy choices that you can use to decorate your cookies. I used Smarties, because that is what we had on hand. But Skittles would work really well, as would Sweet Tarts, or candy corn, or even GFCF chocolate chips. Just be sure to use a little icing as glue.



And do you want to know the irony? When I talked to Olivia's teacher about the gingerbread house project this morning, she said that the rest of the class will be using graham crackers. So Olivia will have the only real gingerbread house!