Only in December -- The Best Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

Seriously, these are THE best gingerbread cookies. Ever. Not only are they delicious, but they're soft, too.  Gingerbread cookies that are soft! Imagine that! One of the first things people say when they try them is, "Soft gingerbread cookies?!"

But I have to say from the get-go:  I can take zero credit for their wonderfulness. My mom picked up the recipe years ago at a gorgeous four-star inn and restaurant in my hometown (my husband and I also had our wedding reception there almost eight years ago. We love that place.). The only change I made to the recipe was the amount of flour in it -- I think the amount indicated in the recipe was a misprint (when I followed the amount on the original, the cookies were like pancakes). 

Anyway, without further ado, the gingerbread cookies that I wait all year to make...

1 1/2 cups of butter (3 sticks), softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup molasses
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
2 tsp. ginger
5 cups flour

In a large bowl, combine butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs one at a time until incorporated.

Add molasses. Mmmmmm....the smell reminds me of Christmas (and my dad, who loves old-fashioned molasses candy). Mix. 

In a separate bowl, combine the soda, salt, spices, and flour.  Add to the wet mixture. Mix until smooth. 

Before you roll out the dough, you need to let the dough chill for a couple hours.  Before I put my dough in the fridge, I like to split it up, flatten it on a piece of plastic wrap, wrap it up, and stick it the fridge. This makes rolling out the chilled dough a little easier because it's ready to go.

Once your dough has chilled, roll it out on a floured countertop until it's about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes.  While you're doing this, you should also be preheating your oven to 350 degrees. 

On a lined or greased baking sheet, bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. It can be a little tricky to tell when they're done (wait until they're golden brown?). Just mess up one of the uglier cut-outs to test for doneness.

Let the cookies cool and then decorate with frosting, candy, and/or sprinkles.  Serve to your family and friends and bask in the deliciousness that is homemade gingerbread.  Just one of the reasons I love December. Now if only we could get some snow here...

{Note:  A couple years ago, my mom and I thought it would be fun to use the gingerbread cookies as decorations around the house. When we did that, we added a couple extra cups of flour to the dough. The extra dough makes the cookies really hard but suitable for using as decor. When we cut out the cookies, we put a little hole in the top with a skewer so we could hang them once they were baked. We frosted them like we usually do, looped some ribbon through the holes at the top (we also used fishing line on some of them, too).  My gingerbread snowflakes looked great on my tree.  Talk about cheap homemade decorations!}