Gingerbread cookies.

It's that time of year again for the annual cookie baking series! This year I opted to try a new gingerbread cookie recipe. I usually associate gingerbread cookies with rock-hard crumbly cookies that are just blah, but I went on a mission to search the depths of Pinterest and let me tell you. I found the best and most flavorful chewy cookie recipe. THIS is it, y'all! These turned out so perfect. They even kept their shape after baking, so decorating was a breeze. Those who got to sample also felt the same way as I did. You're welcome! Enjoy.

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup 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 unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup unsulphured molasses
• 2 tbsp milk

Instructions

• In the bowl of a stand mixer (I used my Kitchen Aid mixer), combine flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt, and baking soda. Set mixer to stir until ingredients are well-mixed.
• Stop mixer, add butter, and mix on low until mixture resembles damp sand, about a minute and a half.
• While mixer is running on low, slowly add the molasses and milk. Spraying your measuring cup with cooking spray before adding the molasses will help it come out smoother and be easier to clean. Turn mixer to medium for about 10 seconds to thoroughly mix dough.
• Turn out dough onto a piece of parchment paper and pat into a ball. Cut dough into two pieces and roll each piece out to 1/4" thickness between two pieces of parchment paper. Don't roll it too thin or your cookie won't be as chewy!
• Put dough, in its parchment paper, in the freezer for 15-20 minutes. It is MUCH less sticky and easier to cut after hardening for a bit. I also refrigerated half overnight and baked the rest in the morning and it worked well.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Remove one sheet of dough from the freezer. Peel parchment off one side of the dough, replace parchment, flip over, and peel off the other side of the parchment. Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter and place cookies about 3/4 inch apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
• Dough will soften quickly, so when you finish cutting your shapes in the first piece of dough, re-roll it out between parchment paper again and replace into the freezer while you cut shapes out of the second piece of dough. Dough can be recombined and re-rolled as many times as necessary.
• You can bake two sheets at a time, if you switch the top and bottom sheets halfway through. Bake for 8-11 minutes or until the centers of the cookies are set and barely retain an imprint when you tough them. Do not overtake. I found that 9 minutes was the perfect time for my oven.