Cookies Martha Would Love.

I don't usually go for fiddly Christmas cookies, but this year, I felt like channeling my inner Martha Stewart and whipped up a batch of gingerbread cut-out cookies.

Gumdrop buttons, homemade icing, fancy colored sugar sprinkles, mini-chocolate chips...I broke out the majority of the candy store and made an afternoon of it.

Of course, all the fancy decorations in the world can't hide a bad cookie.  So I used my patented unique to me gingerbread recipe which never fails:

*Two sticks of butter creamed together with two cups of granulated sugar.
* Add two eggs and at least 1/2 cup of dark molasses.  Go ahead, throw a little extra in...
* Now, add 1/2 tsp each salt, baking powder, ground cardamom, cinnamon.  Add 1/4 tsp ground cloves and allspice.  Add 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, plus 1 teaspoon of ground ginger.
* Slowly mix in three and a half cups of flour. 
* When combined, pop dough into the fridge to chill at least a couple of hours.  It'll keep in there, covered, for a couple days in case you don't have time to roll and cut your cookies straightaway.  Use a little flour on the rolling pin and on your rolling surface to keep the buttery dough from sticking like crazy--it helps to keep the dough on the cool side when you're working with it, so popping it into the fridge between batches is a good plan.

Tah dah.  It makes for a deliciously crisp cookie with a lovely spice flavor. Roll out fairly thick, and bake for about 10 minutes.  Cool completely, and then go nuts decorating.

Ho Ho Ho!  I think Santa would like to find these cookies, don't you?