Fun and festive pine cone shaped gingerbread cookies, easily shaped and cut by hand. A great addition to your holiday cookie platter or for cookie exchanges. Freeze well and travel well!
2/3cupFancy molasses, less 1 tsp or scant 2/3 cup *see Note 2 below
1/2cupvegetable shortening, melted and slightly cooled *see Note 3 below
Optional:
Pecan or walnut halves, halved again, for "stem"
For garnish:
Icing/confectioners' sugar
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Instructions
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice and cloves. Set aside.
In a large bowl with an electric mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the egg, brown sugar and molasses. Mix in the cooled, melted shortening. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and mix until combined thoroughly and mixture is doughy.
Form dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350F (regular bake/not fan assisted), with the rack in the centre of the oven.
Using a scale, measure out 35g pieces of dough (alternately, pull off a piece roughly large walnut size, being sure to keep all the pieces as close to the same size as possible, so they will bake evenly).
Take one piece of dough and use your hands to shape the dough into a rounded, triangle shape about 1-inch thick (see Step-by-Step photos above this Recipe Card to see the shaping). Use the palm of your hand to flatten the triangle shape to about a 1/2-inch thick. (I like to cup my hand slightly, so that the centre of the cookies is slightly thicker than the edges). Using a sharp knife (a paring knife works well), cut about 5 diagonal slices across the dough, about 1/2-inch apart. Repeat with 5 similar slices running the other direction (again, refer to the Step-by-Step photos above that demonstrates the slicing).
Place onto an un-greased baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Repeat with remaining dough pieces. *Cook in batches if you can't fit all the cookies on one baking sheet.
If you like, you can press a piece of a pecan or walnut into the side end of the cookie to act as a "stem". I used pecan halves that I cut in half again.
Once all the cookies are on the baking sheet, take the baking sheet and place it in the fridge for 15-20 minutes before baking. This helps them keep their shape well when baking.
Bake in preheated oven for 18-22 minutes (18 minutes for soft cookies, 22 minutes for crispy cookies or go with about 20 minutes for somewhere in between).
Remove from oven, allow to stand a couple of minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
*If making ahead to freeze, once cooled completely, transfer to a container and freeze up to 2 months. Don't dust with sugar until ready to serve.
Once cookies are cooled, lift cookie and hold vertically, with the wide end up. Tilt back every so slightly and dust with icing sugar (see Step-by-Step photos above to see this, if needed). Repeat with all the cookies.
Notes
1. I use just a pinch of cloves myself, but if you are a fan of clove flavour in your gingerbread cookies, use the higher amount.2. Fancy molasses is recommended for these cookies. Both "Cooking" and "Blackstrap" molasses would be too strong a flavour and are not recommended. This recipe was halved from a large recipe, so the molasses amount work out to slightly less than 2/3 cup.3. If you don't have shortening, you can substitute an equal amount of vegetable, canola or other neutral-tasting oil. You could also use an equal amount of melted butter, though butter will result in a softer cookie.