I don’t know if it’s possible to get tired of seeing this sweet face but I sure do love to squish her and photographing her is so much fun so I certainly hope you aren’t sick of the baby spam yet!
Olive is such a good newborn! She sleeps all night (I almost feel guilty admitting that) and just hangs out all day. She loves her swing, loves to be swaddled, loves to be held and carried and loves her rocking seat. She’s so sweet and calm, in fact, that I’ve been able to actually do things with the big girls and that’s been so good for all of us! Enter these perfect gingerbread cookies.
I read through way too many gingerbread cookie recipes and adjusted all of them into one that was perfect for our family (and for kids!) – i.e. I needed these cookies to be more of a flavorful sugar cookie than a spicy ginger snap type treat and I think we came up with the perfect end result. We swapped dark brown sugar for light, cut the spices way down and upped the amount of butter thus allowing for more flour to be used when rolling them out (which is perfect for little hands that go heavy on the flour!).
Dough Recipe:
1st mix together:
1 stick of salted butter
3/4 cups light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/2 cup unsulphered molasses
…then add:
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon
3 cups of flour (+more for dusting work surface and rolling)
Roll out between two sheets of parchment paper to 1/4” thick and chill for 30 minutes. Then cut out. Bake at 375 for 8 minutes on a nonstick cookie sheet (these are my favorite).
Once cookies are completely cool, make frosting and ice each cookie.
Perfect Gingerbread Cookie Icing:
1 egg white
2 tsp Cream of tartar
3 cups powdered sugar
a few tsp water
Using an electric mixer, whip egg white until thick and frothy. It should look very bright white). Add cream of tartar and powder sugar until well mixed. Add water one tsp at a time until desired consistency.
*If you need to pack or store these cookies stacked, let them dry for 12 hours first!
Happy baking!
xo
-J
Susan Sylvia says
This looks like a great recipe to try! I don’t like too much ginger, and this goes easy on that. Same with allspice. And I like more nutmeg. This looks like a nice balance of spices. It’s amazing how small changes can matter, and I also look for the ‘perfect recipe’ for many things. Thank goodness for the web.
I hope you’re enjoying that sweet face a year on. I’ve always said that it’s almost cruel how the babies we fall in love with grow up relentlessly, and we can never see those baby faces again. My cherub boy had the softest chubby cheeks for years, and now they’re covered with rough stubble! He’s 21 now. Same with our girls–those two little angels are all gone. They’re beautiful and I adore all three of them as adults (probably even more than when they were young, truth be told), but I can only see those baby faces in videos now.
Enjoy every moment with them, and it sounds like you do! Merry Christmas!