I am looking for a tasty and easy gingerbread cookie recipe. I just baked a batch of gingerbread boys/girls with the Cook's Illustrated recipe. I love the taste of these cookies (the best by far) but the dough is a nightmare to work with. Gingerbread is notorious for being difficult but does anyone have good luck with a recipe they wouldn't mind sharing? Thanks!

I wonder if Wilton's gingerbread cookie recipe is good. I LOVE their roll out cookie recipe and wouldn't doubt that their gingerbread recipe is just as good.

Looks really good! give it a try!!

http://www.wilton.com/recipes/recipesandprojects/Xmas/gingerbread.cfm

Grandma's Gingerbread Recipe, Gift Tags and Ornaments

Ingredients:

5 to 5 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons powdered ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup solid vegetable shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups unsulphured molasses*
2 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven 375°F. Thoroughly mix flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Melt shortening in large saucepan. Cool slightly. Add sugar, molasses and eggs; mix well. Add four cups of the dry ingredients and mix again.

Turn mixture onto lightly floured surface. Knead in remaining dry ingredients by hand. Add a little more flour, if necessary, to make the dough firm. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to a 1/4 inch thickness and cut out cookies with Metal Gingerbread Boy and Girl Cookie Cutters.

Bake 6-10 minutes for small to medium size cookies and 10-15 minutes for large cookies.

If you're not going to use your gingerbread right away, wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate. Refrigerated dough will keep for a week, but be sure to remove it 3 hours prior to rolling so it softens and is workable.

*Substitute 1 1/4 cups light corn syrup for molasses to make Blonde Gingerbread.

Makes 40 medium-sized cookies.

Thanks so much. I'll try it and Grandma's too ! Happy Holidays.

I have used the "Gingerbread People" recipe from Betty Crocker for 25 years. Easy and tasty!

Recipe can be found at bettycrocker.com

I have used the "Gingerbread People" recipe from Betty Crocker for 25 years. Easy and tasty!

Recipe can be found at bettycrocker.com

Does anybody have the Cooks Illustrated recipe to post here.
I am a subscriber to the magazine, but don't want to register for the website. I personally think that is a rip off imo. I get both Cooks Country and Cooks Illustrated.

Or does anyone know what issue it might be in?

I usually use Melissa's Gingerbread" from Martha Stewart Christmas, but want to try something different this year.

I will post the recipe here in a little while for anyone who wants to try that one.(I have to type it)

Here's the recipe I usually use.

Melissa's Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup dark molasses
1/2-cup light brown sugar
1/2-cup granulated sugar
4 teaspoons ground ginger
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 tablespoons baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
6 cups sifted all-purpose flour
Directions:
Place the molasses, sugar, ginger, and cinnamon in a double boiler over medium heat. When the sugar has melted, add the baking soda and stir. When the mixture bubbles up, remove from heat.
Place butter in a large mixing bowl. Add the hot molasses mixture and stir well. Let mixture cool to about 90 degrees, then add the eggs. Gradually add the flour, 1 cup at a time, while beating. (This is best done in an electric mixer, but you can use a wooden spoon.)
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and line thick baking sheets with parchment paper.
Shape the dough into a neat rectangle, place on a well-floured board, and roll out until 1/4-inch thick. Cut into shapes, place shapes on the baking sheets, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until firm to the touch. Let cool on racks.
Number Of Servings: Makes 3 to 4 Dozen

Here's an easy recipe I found on allrecipes.com. They come out crispy:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/gingerbread-men/detail.aspx

That is the recipe that I have been using that is soooo hard to work with. It is very delicious but difficult to handle. I will give it to you. Maybe you will have better luck with it.

3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
12 tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter cut into 12 pieces and softened slightly
3/4 cup unsulphured molasses
2 tbsp milk

Stir together flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger cloves, salt and baking soda at low speed until combined. Stop mixer add butter. Mix at medium-low speed until mixture is sandy and resembles fine meal about 1 1/2 minutes. Reduce speed to low and with mixer running gradually add molasses and milk, mix until dough is evenly moistened, about 20 seconds. Increase speed to medium and mix until throughly combined about 10 seconds.

Scrape dough together divide in half. Roll to 1/4 inch thick between two pieces of parchment paper. Put in freezer for 15 to 20 minutes or put in refrigerator 2 hours or overnight.

Adjust oven racks to upper-and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Cut out shapes. Bake 8 to 11 minutes rotating cookie sheets front to back and switching positions top to bottom halfway through. Bake until set in centers and dough barely retains imprint when touched very gently with fingertips.

Anyone have a recipe for a softer gingerbread cookie? (I love gingerbread cake and would like a cakie cookie.) I used the Wilton recipe (with half molasses and half light corn syrup for the houses) but it's so hard that I almost broke a tooth trying to eat a little gingerbread man.

Any ideas?

Thanks!!!

If you're still looking for a soft gingerbread cookie, try this one:
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-49970.html

The gingerbread recipe you're working with (3 c flour) is going to give you a super soft (and probably incredibly sticky) dough, so I'm sure it was a nightmare and a half. I use one very similar to the one above with 6 c flour, only with the addition of 1tsp allspice and/or 1 tsp ground cloves.

This dough is extremely easy to work with because it is so dry, and the cookies are crumble resistant. You may want to keep a spray bottle of water or oil handy when you're rolling and cutting since this one starts out dry and the rolling flour can make it a little too dry. With the additional moisture, re-rolling was not a problem at all.

PS - The recipe I was talking about (6c flour) doesn't have nearly as strong of a molasses flavor as the others, which I find to be a good thing, but just FYI.