Gingies!

I think my most absolute favorite cookie on the planet is a really chewy gingersnap.  I love them.  I love them to pieces and I insisted years ago that gingersnaps be on our daily menu at the bakery.  Just to make me happy year round.  They're beautiful!  Glistening with big rough sugar crystals and tasty as can be.

I usually make gingerbread boys every Christmas to go on the tree, but to be honest you'd have to be pretty hard pressed to eat one of those boys.  The recipe is fantastic to smell and makes the best gingerbread houses, but thats about it.  They certainly aren't a gingersnap.  They smell like one, but that's about it.

Well this year I wanted to eat a gingerbread boy.   Maybe it was the principle of the thing.  I wanted a gingerbread boy to taste good.  Not just something cute to be viewed and smelled but tasted.  I was searching for a delicious gingersnap texture boy.  Could it happen?  Could gingerbread boys be tasty too.  In a perfect world I knew it could happen.

I found it!  Yeah!!!  I have a testimony of Pinterest.  That's where I spied these.  They are delicious! My whole Christmas has been made.  I've decided I don't even need a new Landrover now.  I'm happy with my Gingie Babies!

Another trick I've come across is white chocolate.  It actually looks as pretty as royal icing, but it tastes good too.  We had a great time last night decorating all these babies.  My kids favorite is the little girl laying on her tummy in her thong.  Everyone seems to want to eat that cookie.  We should eat her and sing that scandelous Christmas song while we eat her arm.  You know the "Baby It's Cold Outside" song.  Such a clean uplifting Christmas tune:)  I hope you have fun making some gingerbread babies of your own.  They really are delish!

Left to right we have Thing A Thong Cutie, Mr. Gingie, Honey Chunkers (she's going chunky dunking), Mr. Happy Gingie Baby, Swim Team Gingie, and Mr. Pirate Gingie.  Can you tell we had fun!

Gingie Babies
Recipe courtesy of Annie-Eats

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
2 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. ground ginger
1 c. butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup molasses
1 large egg
Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and spices to combine; set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Mix in the molasses and egg until combined.  Add in the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated.  Cover the bowl and chill the dough for at least one hour.
Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  Roll the dough out on a lightly floured work surface to about ¼-inch thickness.  Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters.  Place the cookie shapes onto the prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart.  Bake for 10 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking.  Or even a minute less.  A little underdone makes a perfect cookie.  Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes.  Transfer to a wire cooling rack and let cool completely.  Decorate as desired.  I used melted white chocolate and piped it out of a Ziploc.  Just melt the chocolate in the microwave for 1 minute and stir.  Put back in microwave for 30 more seconds until melted completely.  Pour into Ziploc and snip the end off.  Go to town.