Gingerbread Cookie Mix

December is here and all around us holiday baking is in full swing. We don't give baked goods as gifts anymore (we give jarred mixes), but I thought it would be fun for my daughter and I to do a bit of baking for ourselves. She's been really into play dough lately, so I figured something with a dough she could roll and cut would be best. I settled on...

Gingerbread Cookie Mix (single use)

1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Big Batch (makes 4 uses)

7 cups flour
3 cups sugar
2 tablespoons ginger
2 tablespoons cinnamon
3 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Most gingerbread mixes use brown sugar, which causes clumping and decreases shelf life. I make mine with white sugar and add more molasses when I bake them which makes the mix more storage friendly in big batches.

What else you'll need

1/4 cup butter
1 egg
3 tablespoons molasses

Combine butter, egg and molasses and mix well, then stir in 3 1/4 cups of mix. Once the dough is well mixed form it into a ball with your hands. You can chill it in the fridge for a while to make it easier to roll, but we couldn't wait and it worked fine.

On a lightly flour surface roll out your dough to desired thickness and cut out your shapes with cookie cutters.

Lay cut cookies on a baking sheet. I gave my daughter her own sheet so she could proudly arrange her lumpier handiwork. She called them 'bingergen men'.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until cookies begin to harden and brown (they will continue to cook a little as they cool so don't overcook them).

Cool completely before icing.

We're not elaborate bakers here so I just decorated using a mixture of icing sugar and water in a ziploc bag with the tip cut off, but I might try sticking candies on next time. These were a HUGE hit and were gone by the end of the day.