1988 3rd Place Gloria Heeter's Best Gingerbread Cookies

Title: 1988 3rd Place Gloria Heeter's Best Gingerbread Cookies
Yield: 24 Servings
Categories: Cookies, Holiday 

Ingredients: 

      1 c  Corn oil margarine
      1 c  Molasses
      1 c  Sugar
      1    Egg
      4 c  Flour
      2 ts Baking powder
      1 ts Baking soda
      3 ts Ground cinnamon
      2 ts Ground cloves
      2 ts Ground ginger
      1 ts Ground nutmeg
           Currants, raisins, silver
           Balls and candy,
           For decoration
      1    Egg yolk mixed w/1 ts water
           Icing for decorating


   Preparation time: 25 minutes Chilling time: 8 hours or overnight Baking
  time: 7 to 10 minutes
  
    1. Beat margarine, sugar and molasses in a large mixing bowl. Add egg and
  mix well.
  
    2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves,
  ginger and nutmeg. Add to butter mixture; mix well.
  
    3. Divide dough into 4 equal portions on a large piece of plastic wrap.
  Wrap and shape into a flat disk about 1 inch thick. Refrigerate until firm,
  about 8 hours, or freeze for 2 hours. (Dough can be refrigerated up to 3
  days.)
  
    4. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Working with 1 disk of the dough at a time,
  roll out on a well-floured board, dusting the rolling pin as you work.
  Dough will be very soft and can be difficult to work with so work quickly
  and use plenty of flour. Using cookie cutters dipped in flour, cut into
  desired shapes. Put cookies 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Use
  currants or candy for eyes or buttons, if desired.
  
    5. Bake until lightly puffed, 7 to 10 minutes. First batch may be puffier
  because they will have less flour rolled in them. While still warm, paint
  with egg yolk wash if desired. Cool on wire racks. Cool completely, then
  decorate as desired with icing.
  
    Icing: Mix confectioners' sugar with a small amount of water until thick
  and spreading consistency. Add food coloring if desired and put in a small
  plastic bag. Cut a small hole in one corner and drizzle icing out onto the
  cooled cookies.
  
    Note: A 4-inch gingerbread cookie cutter was used in testing.
  
    Oak Brook's Gloria Heeter is a newcomer to the Chicago area and brings
  her favorite gingerbread cookie with her from Kansas City, Kan. "About nine
  years ago, my neighbor, Diane Collins, brought them over for Halloween in
  Halloween shapes," she says. "I took out some of the egg yolks and
  substituted corn oil margarine rather than shortening, which sometimes can
  have palm oil in it." Calling them "truly a cookie for all seasons," Heeter
  once even made them for her golden retriever's first birthday party. "We
  invited the neighborhood kids in for punch and cookies-cookies shaped like
  dogbones."    At Christmas, though, "I typically print the names of each
  person on the cookies, place them in a plastic bag and decorate them with a
  red and green ribbon," writes Heeter of her personalized gingerbread
  people. "A handmade gift is always filled with love." from the Chicago
  Tribune annual Food Guide Holiday Cookie Contest December 8, 1988
  Posted to MM-Recipes Digest V3 #340
  
  From: Linda Place 
  
  Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 11:32:51 +0000