Honey Gingerbread Cookies

Photo Credit Thomas Stasiuk CC

 I know many homeschoolers at this time of year take some time off or at least slow down a little. Of course for many there is so much to do and older children can not only help, but learn at the same time. They boys are 15 and almost 13, so what used to be a great time for creating homemade decorations has gone to the wayside. At this point they have no interest in crafting however, they do like to bake, so each year they make a batch of cookies of their choosing. Brett loves ginger bread cookies and will usually make a batch. I remember one year we had no molasses, which we usually keep for making homemade barbeque sauce, so we used honey instead. I had a hard time finding a recipe, but was finally successful. I had read some say that substituting honey takes away from the natural ginger bread taste however, I did not think so. I also felt that the texture was much better, I love soft cookies, it was not as hard as the traditional ones. So, anyway if you would like to try something a little different this year here is the recipe.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees 

1/2 Cup sugar
3 Cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp powdered ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp of powered cloves and nutmeg
1/2 lb butter cut into dots
1/2 Cup honey

Sift the sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg

Work the dots of butter into the dry ingredients with your fingertips

Refrigerate for an hour or longer if possible

Roll the dough out about 1/8 inch thick on a floured board or between sheets of wax paper

Cut into desired shapes and bake for 12 to 15 minutes

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

Have you made ginger bread cookies that are not traditional?