Faux Gingerbread: Brown Sugar Spice Roll Out Cookies

Recipe time!!

Let's start with a story.  Love stories right?  I'll just pretend you said "yes, love them, please tell me a tale...."

My dad hates molasses.  I mean can't stand it.  The look or smell of it....just not his thing.  And it's not that Dad is picky.  He eats just about everything.  He used to cook for a living before I was born.

See, when Dad was a kid he went to go work at the feed mill with my grandpa.  Well, one of the byproducts of the mill was molasses.  Or something like it anyway.  It was my dad's job to climb down in the tank whenever there was a back up and unclog it.  So he had to go down armpit deep into the pit to fix it.  Guess what kind of things like molasses?  Maggots.  Maggots love it.  And beetles.  Getting a visual here?

Really, I don't blame him.  Not one bit.

Appetite aroused?  Awesome.

Anyway, my family came up for my daughter's 4th birthday party and I was working on Callye's 12 days of Chirstmas project.  I was making a "gingerbread box".  But for some reason I didn't have molasses in the house.  Must be habit.  And good thing too because I don't know that dad would appreciate the molasses-eee goodness a bakin'.  SO I improvised with what I had in the house to make a gingerbread-like cookie that is molasses free....  And it turned out AWESOME!

So awesome in fact, that I just had to share it.  If your team NO MOLASSES then these cookies are PERFECT!


Even if you are team LOVE MOLASSES...these are still awesome!  So I encourage anyone who reads this to try it out.

They're really good.  They look, taste, smell very similar to gingerbread.  I seriously had a depletion issue when decorating them.  They kept disappearing ...don't know who could have done it really.

No that's not a crumb on my shirt...its'...uh....dust?

Anyway, here is the recipe.....then I'll go on more about them....because they're just that amazing.

Brown Sugar Spice Roll Outs

4 sticks salted butter
2 eggs
1 packed cup dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 TBSP honey
2 tsp vanilla

1 lb 12 oz all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cardamom
1 tsp nutmeg

Beat the first 6 ingredients through vanilla together using the paddle attachment in a stand mixer.

Sift all the remaining dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl.

Add the dry to the wet and mix until it comes together.  This might get a little tough and you may have to get in there and use your hands to combine it.  Or not...my mixer is old and it wheezes..... so I had to get in there with my hands a little.

Separate the dough into 2 equal parts.  Roll each half of dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper.  Then pop it in the freezer for an hour.

Preheat your oven to 325 while you wait.

Cut out your shapes and put them on a sheet pan covered in parchment paper.  Bake for 12 to 14 minutes.  This is the best part.  It smells SO GOOD!  In fact my mother told me to keep the scraps and pop them in the oven when I'm expecting company.  The whole house was like Christmas.....



I LOVE these!  I may never make gingerbread again.

For one thing, they don't really spread.  Like at all!

all pretty and uniform!!  :)

And I am going to confess something to you.  I got so busy with my Christmas box that I had to leave these shapes on the counter for a week.  A WEEK! I don't sell my cookies and I usually just photo them and throw them away....but for some reason while I was decorating these last night I decided to nibble on them...probably because they smelled so dang good still.  And you know what?  They are still soft and tender!  I had 2 more writing this post.  I'm not ashamed.  It was worth it. And they don't get too super soft either. The box I built with it is still standing sturdy on my dining room table.  But boy, I almost feel like they got more tender with time.

Just love.  Love at first bite....

Anyway, I HIGHLY recommend giving these a shot.  And I am tooting my own horn.  Proudly.