Christmas Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

This Christmas Gingerbread Cookie Recipe is supposedly one used by Mormon pioneers in the 1840's.

That's the reason it calls for lard, which was the primary shortening in that era.

You can substitute canola oil.

Christmas Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

1 cup white sugar
1 cup molasses
3/4 cup lard
1/2 cup hot water
2 eggs
6 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl mix together the white sugar, molasses, and lard until smooth. Rinse the molasses out of the measuring cup with the hot water and add the water. Stir in the eggs.

Combine the all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon and ground ginger and then stir into the batter to make a soft dough. Add more flour if needed.

Cover the bowl and refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour, or until firm.

Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness on a floured surface. Cut the dough out into desired shapes using Christmas cookie cutters. Place the cookies onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the cookies appear dry in the center.

This Gingerbread Cookie Recipe is not as spicy as some recipes are. If you've never been a fan of gingerbread because of the heavy spices you should give this one a try. You just might like it. It's a great cookie and a tradition at Christmas.