Gingersnaps

 I love gingersnaps! We made these for Christmas with pretzel antlers and a M&M red nose and brown eyes. These are also amazing with pumpkin ice cream.

Ingredients:
 

¾ C butter          1 C Sugar

1 egg                     ¼ C Molasses

2 ¼ C Flour         2 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt             ½ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. cloves        ¼ tsp. ginger

Make into balls and roll in sugar.  Bake 375˚ 7-9 mins. (Unless you have a crazy oven you really don't want these to bake much longer than the 9 minutes. They need to be a little under-baked looking so they turn out soft in the middle when they're cooled)

Royal Icing

This recipe comes courtesy of Alton Brown and foodnetwork.com. We used it as icing for gingerbread houses and it worked really well. It dried fast and held even the heavy candy on really well. My favorite part was it was very water-soluble and much easier to clean out of the frosting bags than a Crisco-based birthday cake frosting. Happy Decorating!

Ingredients

• 3 ounces pasteurized egg whites (the ones that come in a carton are pasteurized)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions

In large bowl of stand mixer combine the egg whites and vanilla and beat until frothy. Add confectioners' sugar gradually and mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated and mixture is shiny. Turn speed up to high and beat until mixture forms stiff, glossy peaks. This should take approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Add food coloring, if desired. For immediate use, transfer icing to pastry bag or heavy duty storage bag and pipe as desired. If using storage bag, clip corner. Store in airtight container in refrigerator for up to 3 days.