Grandma's Gingerbread Cookies

A sample of our Gingerbread Cookies (I diverted from men for awhile to have some cute hearts). My mother recently bought me a Wilton decorator set and it was fun to practice the squiggle lines on these little cookies. You also don't feel "fat" after eating them at two to three bites a piece :)

Seth was reading a book the other day where the girl had plate full of Gingerbread Men. Seth was determined that we make some right away and that's just what we did. I mixed up the dough yesterday so it could chill overnight and then this morning we rolled them out while in pajamas and listening to some tunes. It was great fun!

After help rolling out the dough Seth used the cutter to make his gingerbread men...

...scoop them off the rolling surface...

...and onto the cookie sheet. We might have this little guy in charge of Christmas cookies this year while I hold the baby. He's a super helper!

Here is the recipe for you to enjoy!

Gingerbread Boys
(With love from Grandma)

1/2 Cup shortening (Crisco only)
1/2 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup molasses
1/4 Cup water
2 1/2 Cups flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon soda
3/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Cream shortening and sugar. Blend in molasses, water, flour, salt, soda, ginger and nutmeg. Cover and chill 2-3 hours.

Heat oven to 375 degrees...bake about 10 minutes.

We made a double batch and then frosted them with the recipe below. One batch of frosting can easily work for a double batch unless you really get into making a wide variety of colors. I was just playing around with my new decorator set so we only did one color!

Decorator Frosting
(also Grandma's recipe)

1/3 cup Crisco shortening
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk

Blend in electric mixture until combined then three minutes on medium speed and five minutes on high speed. Add food coloring as desired. Makes 1 cup frosting.