Gingerbread Cookies

Preheat to 350

I really love gingerbread because ginger is so healthy for you. Ginger energizes the immune system and calms the stomach and besides all of the that it really tastes good and is fun to make. This recipe has been doubled already. Merry Christmas!

Ingredients:

Base:
2 1/2 sticks lightly salted butter, softened
2 1/3 cups honey or sweetener
1 tsp. orange peel or 2 zested oranges


Dry Ingredients:
8 cups flour plus additional for rolling, if you need
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoon ground dry ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground allspice
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon kosher salt

The wet:
4 eggs
1 cup dark molasses
The juice of 2 lemons


In a large bowl mix together all of the dry ingredients

In another bowl whisk together the wet ingredients

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients on low until thoroughly combined. Flour your surface and divide you dough into 1/4ths. Place your bowl of dough into another bowl with ice in the bottom and let that sit until you have finished making the orange icing.  Then roll the dough out and cut the ginger bread men out remembering not to make them too thin. They are more moist when they are a little plump.

Orange Icing:

2 cups powered sugar
Finely grated zest of 2 oranges
2 to 3 tablespoons of 100% orange juice
1/2 teaspoon light honey
1 tsp. vanilla

In a large bowl add all ingredients and whisk them if it is a bit too thick add a bit more orange juice or water to thin it out.

Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or longer if you do not use honey. When the cookies are cooled then you can ice them and you can even stack two together with icing in between. Another thing you can do is press them into cookie molds.