Christmas Cookies: Gingerbread People

Now that finals are done, and the fall semester has come to a conclusion, it's time to bake Christmas cookies!

Cookies? Do I get to lick the bowl? PLEASE?!

Every year for as long as I can remember, Christmas has involved the mass production of cookies in my family. For one thing, they are delicious tradition! For another, my mother used them as end of the year 'thank you' gifts to the various people and business we interacted with through the year. Church people, the dentist, doctors, car mechanic, if we knew them and liked them, they got a plate of at least 5 different Christmas cookies. I aim to continue the tradition.



I try to make 6 or 7 kinds, depending on my mood and how many people I can give them away to. This year I plan to make gingerbread, hazelnut crescents, jam thumbprints, peanut butter, sugar cookies, gingersnaps, and chocolate chip. Cue the deliciousness!

Gingerbread cookies are a snap, if you have a stand mixer. They can be mixed by hand, but they are more difficult than, say, a butter cookie dough or  drop cookies. Stand mixers though are perfectly happy to get all that flour incorporated into a super stiff dough.

I love rolling and cutting out cookies. It appeals to both my domestic side and my math-y side. How many cookies can I get out of this one roll out? How do I optimize my geometry? There is also something nice about rolling out cookies on a nice clean tea towel.

And of course, there is the cookies themselves!

First batch = extra flour on roll out

As far as I know, this recipe we got out of the old "Joy of Cooking" cookbook. There is a newer edition, but, based on my experience with the new "Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook", the recipes have probably been altered to be 'healthier', e.g. ruined, so I would recommend getting/using the old edition or its reprint.

Happy baking!

~PhysicsGal