Actually Delicious Gingerbread House and Cookies!

Each year I make homemade gingerbread houses for my kids and preschoolers. For the life of myself I couldn't find my recipe, so I searched the internet for hours for a good recipe that didn't require any boiling or weird ingredients. After a few other recipe failures, I came upon these 2 recipes from allrecipes.com. They are the bomb!! The house recipe tastes like graham crackers. My kids begged me to make more just so they could eat them. And I had numerous requests from my preschool mommies for the cookie recipe... it's that good!! One thing to note is that I had to add more flour to both recipes. So if your dough is still too creamy and not stiff and rollable then keep adding flour! (I hesitate to say how much more because I live 6500 ft above sea level and so it's going to be different depending on where you live :)

Gingerbread Man Cookies

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup brown sugar

2/3 cup molasses

2 eggs

4 cups flour, divided

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ tsp allspice

½ tsp cloves

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ginger

Preheat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, craem together the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the molasses and eggs Combine 1 ½ cups of the flour, baking soda, salt, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger; beat into the molasses mixture. Gradually stir in the remaining flour by hand to form a stiff dough. (I had to add a lot more flour). On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8” thickness. Cut out and place 1” apart on cookie sheets. Bake for 8-10 min in the oven.

Gingerbread House Dough

¾ cup butter

7/8 cup packed light brown sugar

1 ½ tsp lemon juice

½ cup molasses

2 eggs

3 cups flour (I had to add 2 ½ more cups)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp ginger

2 tsp allspice

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in lemon zest, lemon juice, and molasses. Gradually beat in 2 eggs. Sift the flour, baking powder and spices together; stir into creamed mixture. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out and cut out your house shapes. In a preheated 375F oven, bake for 10 min. Transfer to wire racks. Leave overnight to harden.

Applesauce Chocolate Chip Cookies

To eat these cookies is to step into the memories of my wonderful childhood, with the iconic mom who is baking away in the kitchen making delicious, enticing and aromatic goodies for her kids, friends and guests. These have been my favorite since I was a little kid and because of that, I'm sure they always will be :) More a cake like texture than cookie itself, these are best right off the pan with at least 16 oz of milk!

1 cup applesauce

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup sugar

½ cup shortening

2 eggs

¾ tsp cloves

1 tsp salt

¾ tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

2 cups flour

1 bag chocolate chips

In a small bowl add applesauce and baking soda. Stir and set aside. In a larger bowl cream sugar and shortening. Add egg and cream. Add applesauce mixture and stir well. Add all dry ingredients and mix well. Add chocolate chips. (Dough will be fairly sticky). Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes.

White Chocolate Pumpkin Cookies

Call the cookie police, I cannot stop eating these!!!!!! These are by far my new favorite pumpkin cookies! My sweet friend Candy brought our family a couple plates full and I am ashamed to admit I ate 9 of the 14 of them. Any attempt at self-control flies out the window with these little babies!!!

2 cups (4 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
1 can ( about 16 oz.) solid-pack pumpkin
2 eggs
4 cups flour
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 pkg. (12 oz) white chocolate chips
1 container (16 oz.) cream cheese frosting
1/4 cup brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375. Grease cookie sheets.

2. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer at med speed until light and fluffy. Add pumpkin and eggs; beat until we'll blended. Add flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and baking powder; beat just until blended. Stir in white chocolate chips.

3. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart on to prepared cookie sheets. Bake about  16 minutes or until set and bottoms are browned. Cool 1 min. On cookie sheets. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

4. Combine frosting and brown sugar in small bowl. Spread on warm cookies.

Easy Peasy Pumpkin Cookies

I love that Rachel loves to bake! And I love even more that she likes to make my fav sweets :). These awesome cookies are so simple and so quick to make up, you just might find yourself making them more often than you should (not to mention stocking up on Spice cake mixes)!

1 box Spice cake mix

1 small can pumpkin pie

½ tsp cloves

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 bag of chocolate chips

1/4 bag cinnamon chips (optional but super yummy ;)

Mix everything together and then spoon onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake 375 for 8-10 minutes and then let cool on the pan for a couple more minutes.

Stay Soft Cookies

Thes cookies are so good (proof: Rachel just made these for a friend who severed most of his thumb. He tried them and told her he was going to cut off his other thumb just to get some more because they were the best he had ever had ;). They stay so soft! And I haven't had to alter this recipe at all for our high altitude. It's a good thing it makes a huge batch, because they disappear so quickly! (Recipe from Jessi).

1 c. brown sugar

2 c. sugar

2 c. Crisco

4 eggs

2 tsp soda

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp salt

5 c. flour

Mix sugars and crisco. Add eggs, soda, vanilla and salt and mix until creamed. Add the flour. Mix in choc chips. Bake 375 for 8-10 minutes. Also really good with p.b. chips!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am pretty much in love with Mel at melskitchencafe.com! She has some amazing recipes that our family loves! I never buy cookbooks because of 1 reason: we usually only like a few recipes in the whole book. Alas, some food blogs are the same way... but not Mel's! She is a standard go-to for our family! Rachel actually made these cookies right after she turned 10... aren't they gorgeous!? And they taste just as good!

From melskitchencafe.com 

1 cup (16 tablespoons) butter, softened to room temperature

2 cups smooth or chunky peanut butter

1 ½ cups firmly packed light brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 ½ tablespoons milk

1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 ½ cups flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 cups chocolate chips (or a combination of peanut butter and chocolate chips)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl combine the butter and peanut butter and beat the mixture until it is light and fluffy. Add the brown and white sugars and mix until well combined. Add the eggs and mix for 1-2 minutes, until the mixture is well combined and light in color. Add the milk and vanilla and mix. Add the dry ingredients and mix just briefly. While there are still large spots of flour, add the chocolate chips (or peanut butter chips or both) and mix until the flour is completely mixed in and the mixture is well combined. Let the cookie dough sit for 15 minutes before scooping onto the baking sheets. It will firm up as it sits.

When ready to bake, scoop tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto baking sheets leaving about 1 to 2 inches in between the cookies to allow for spreading as they bake. Bake for 10-11 minutes, taking care not to overbake in the slightest! Leave the cookies on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes after baking before removing them to a cooling rack. This will help them set up and be firm enough to transfer without having them overbake in the oven. The cookies may look slightly underbaked but they will firm up as they cool. Resist the urge to eat them warm as they taste much better cooled.

To freeze as dough: Just scoop up the cookies onto a cookie sheet like normal and stick in freezer for 15 minutes. Then put in ziplock bag and bake whenever you have a craving! And of course you can freeze the cookies after they are cooked for a quick tasty treat!