Honey Gingerbread Cookies

• 1-1/2 cups honey
  3/4 cups butter or margarine, softened
  1 egg
  5 cups all purpose flour
  2 tsp baking powder
  1 tbsp ground ginger
  1 tbsp ground cinnamon
  1 tsp ground cloves

  In large bowl, cream honey and butter until light and fluffy. Beat in egg. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon and cloves; mix until combined. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours. When dough is chilled, divide dough in half; return one half to refrigerator and make cookies with the other half. Dust work surface and dough lightly with flour. Roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Cut into gingerbread men shapes using a cookie cutter; transfer to well-greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Remove cookies from sheet and cool on wire rack. Repeat with remaining dough. Makes about three dozen cookies depending on the size of your cookie cutter.

Ginger Creams

1/2 cup sugar 
1/4 cup shortening 
1/2 cup molasses 
1/2 cup hot water
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda 
1/2 tsp. salt 
1/2 tsp. ginger 
1/2 tsp. cinnamon 
1/2 tsp. nutmeg 
1/2 tsp. cloves

Preheat oven to 375°. Combine first five ingredients; beat well. Stir in remaining ingredients. Drop by teaspoons on greased cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake 10-15 minutes.

Frosting Mix ingredients:
2 tbsp. butter
2 cups powdered sugar 
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2-3 tbsp. milk

Spread on cookies when cool.

Ginger Bread

1&1/2 cups all purpose flour or 1 2/3 cups cake flour 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
1/2 teaspoon soda 
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 
3/4 teaspoon ginger 
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/3 cup soft margarine 
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg 
1/2 cup dark molasses 
1/2 cup buttermilk

Sift flour. Measure. Sift an additional three times. Add salt, soda and spices. Cream margarine until smooth. Add sugar and eggs. Cream until light and fluffy. Add molasses. Beat vigorously for 2 minutes. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk. Turn into a 11 x 7 x 1½ inch greased pan. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes on rack. Invert. Serve with whipped cream.

Ingredients

Directions

time: 7 minutes 1. Put sugar, syrup, water, ginger, cinnamon and cloves into a large saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture boils and sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Add butter. Stir until butter is melted and mixture is no longer very hot.

2. Mix flour and baking soda. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture and stir to blend thoroughly. Dough will have a soft texture.

Place dough in an airtight container and refrigerate overnight or at least 12 hours or as long as 1 week.

3. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Remove about one-sixth of the dough and knead it until it is slightly softened. Roll dough directly onto ungreased cookie sheets until it is about 1/4-inch thick. Use a cookie cutter to stamp shapes in dough, allowing a 1-inch margin between each cookie. Remove excess dough by lifting it and peeling it away. Scraps of dough can be kneaded together and re-rolled.

4. Bake until golden brown, about 7 minutes. Allow cookies to cool slightly and become crisp before removing them from the cookie sheet.

Cool thoroughly on wire racks. If desired, you may "paint" the cooled cookies using a clean, small paintbrush and food coloring that has been watered down slightly. Store cookies in airtight containers.

Note: After the 12-hour resting period, this cookie dough can be hand-molded like clay--rolled, pinched, poked and pressed--and it will keep its shape, expanding slightly while baking. Thin cookies will become brown and bake quickly, large and thick shapes will require longer baking. Can be cut into any shape desired but make the cookies uniformly thick. The microwave oven can be used to cook the sugar mixture in step 1.

Ingredients

Directions

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Add the corn syrup, lemon rind and juice, rum, and spices and beat well.

Gradually stir in the flour until the dough forms a ball.

If the flour has been packed closely in the measuring cup, you may find that the dough tends not to cohere into a ball.

The addition of a teaspoon of two of water will correct the proportions.

Divide the dough in two and pat each piece into a rectangular shape.

Wrap and chill for 1 or 2 hours in the refrigerator or place in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Measure out a large piece of aluminum foil that will fit a cookie sheet.

Turn its shiny side down, place one of the rectangles of dough on it, and rap it a few times with a rolling pin to soften the chilled dough a little.

Cover with a piece of wax paper the same length as the foil and fasten the two sheets together with several straight pins.

Roll the dough between the foil and the wax paper as thin as you can.

The thinner the better and crisper.

Do not attempt to work too fast, but press down heavily on the rolling pin.

The rolled-out dough should almost reach the edges of the wax paper.

Lift the dough with with foil and wax paper onto the cookie sheet, foil side down.

Remove the straight pins and carefully pull off the wax paper.

Cut the dough into any shape you desire--squares, rectangles, diamonds, triangles--but leave in place after cutting.

Make certain you cut through the dough; this will prevent excess breakage later.

Place in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned.

The ultrathin dough at the edges of the pan will brown faster than the rest.

Repeat with the other half of the dough.

Store in an airtight container.

These crisps are not only extremely good, but very fragile as well.

Avoid excessive handling.