Gingerbread Mummies

Happy Halloween, everyone! I'm coming to you today with a family recipe, sure to delight little goblins of all ages. My Granmomma is famous for her gingerbread cookies. Everyone who has had the pleasure of knowing her, is aware of the fact that she makes the very best gingerbread cookies on Earth.   She makes them for all occasions, especially for grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I remember as a little girl, baking with my Granmomma in her kitchen. She used to have a gray stool that I would sit on, a little orange and white gingham apron I would wear (which I now have!), and a miniature rolling pin for me to use. She would make the dough, sometimes weeks in advance, and store it in the freezer so it would be ready for my siblings and me when we arrived at her home. She would often invite other children from the congregation where my Gramps was a full-time preacher over to make cookies with us. As far as I can tell, Granmomma always has a batch of gingerbread cookies just minutes away from being ready to eat. She decorates the cutest little gingerbread boys with red-hots, mini chocolate chips, or raisins for the eyes and buttons. She also pipes icing onto the cookies to decorate them and make the cookies extra special.  At Christmastime, Granmomma always arrives with a cookie tin full of beautifully decorated gingerbread boys. I am so very thankful that my children have had the priviledge of making gingerbread cookies with my Granmomma (They did so just 2 weeks ago!) She goes out of her way to make the every-day, extraordinary. It would be absolutely impossible to count the number of lucky people who have eaten one of her ginger cookie boys. She is truly a blessing.

This is my Granmomma, giving Parker his very first taste of a ginger cookie boy! Was he really, ever that little?

Parker (2 yrs. old) decorating cookies with Granmomma.

Last Christmas, Granmomma brought large ginger cookie boys for Parker, Natalie, and Cousin Hannah to decorate. They loved it!

So, today I'm going to share with you her recipe. My children and I made these cookies over the weekend, but instead of making them look like gingerbread boys, we decorated them to look like Mummies. Well....I did. Parker and Natalie just decorated theirs...it won't be hard to tell which ones they belong to them. I like to call theirs "Scary-Good". Ha!

Granmomma's Ginger Cookie Boys

1 c. margarine
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
4 t. grated orange peel
2 T. dark corn syrup
3 c. flour
2 t. baking soda
1 t. ginger
2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. ground cloves
1/2 t. salt

My kiddos LOVE to unwrap the butter and throw it in the mixing bowl. :)

Thoroughly cream together the margarine and sugar. Add egg; beat until light and fluffy. Add orange peel and corn syrup, mix well. Sift together dry ingredients, stir into creamed mixture. Chill dough thoroughly. (I made the dough a couple of days in advance and stored it in the refrigerator until I was ready for the kids to roll it out.)

On lightly floured surface, roll dough very thin and cut ginger boys. Use raisin pieces or red hots for face and buttons.

Bake at 375 degrees on ungreased pan, for 8-10 minutes. Cool 1 minute before removing from pan. Decorate further if desired using cake decorating tips. (After the cookies were finished baking, I stored them in a plastic, air-tight container until the next morning when we were ready to decorate the cookies.)

Icing for Cookies

1 3/4 c. powdered sugar
1 1/2 t. meringue powder
2 T. water
1 T crisco
1 t. vanilla

Combine all ingredients until smooth. Fill piping bags and decorate. Or, fill a ziploc bag and snip off one of the corners, to make your own piping bag.

This was Parker and Natalie's first time to use a piping bag. The loved it. I totally let them decorate the cookies however they wanted to. No need to stress over what the cookies looked like...they were supposed to be SCARY! :) Making memories is not about perfection.

Scary-good.

My Mummies.

So, go grab your goblins and bake up a good time. This recipe is sure to please. Enjoy!

~Jennifer