Though we don’t keep any sweets at home beside dark chocolate (82% cacao solids, adored by grownups) and organic lollipops (adored by kids in our family), I believe, that holidays it’s a time, when you can break certain rules. Life would be fun, if you do only what’s right and never let you or your kids to have some fun.
Gingerbread Ornament is a great activity to do with your kids. It’s also makes a great gift option.
The dough is easy to work and cookies are strong enough to hang on a Christmas tree. Dough needs to be refrigerated for at least 4h before rolling, so plan accordingly.
Ingredients (makes 2 dozens of cookies):
- 3 cups All-purpose unbleached flour
- ¼ tsp. Real salt
- 2 tsp. Ground ginger
- 1 tsp. Ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp. Ground Nutmeg
- 1 tsp. Baking soda
- ¾ cup (110g) Butter
- ¾ cup Firmly packed brown sugar (the darker the better)
- 1 Tbsp. Blackstrap Molasses
- 1 Egg
- 1tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract
Instructions:
- Sift flour into the bowl
- Add salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and baking soda to flour and mix
- Beat softened butter with sugar, then add an egg, molasses and pure vanilla extract and mix
- Work in flour with spices in the butter mixture, adding flour little by little
- When dough is all mixed, separate it in two parts, wrap it and refrigerate from 4h to 2 days
- Take out dough from the fridge and roll it on lightly floured surface
- Preheat oven to 380F and lined baking tray with parchment paper
- Cut cookies with cookie cutters and put on the baking tray, leaving 1 inch space between them
- Make a hole in each cookie with a toothpick (to insert ribbon or string to hang the ornament); make sure that hole is large enough as it will shrink in the baking process
- Bake around 10 minutes or until edges starts to brown
- Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack for another 20 minutes
At this point your cookies are ready for decoration or for adding a ribbon.
I’m not a fan of icing and prefer to decorate with dark chocolate.
Chocolate decoration instructions:
- To melt a chocolate put a little bowl with chocolate pieces on water bath and melt (stirring will help to speed up the process)
- Pour melted chocolate in the sandwich bag (I don’t have any special tool for decoration, so I just used a sandwich bag), chocolate should be still liquid but not too hot
- Cut the corner of the bag with sharp scissors and let your inner Picasso out
- Leave cookies overnight to let chocolate to settle completely
The last step is to add ribbon or string and hang on your Christmas tree. I used ribbons and a tapestry needle was a big help in getting ribbon through the hole.
And what you’re doing with kids for this Christmas?
