Happy December Eve everyone! I hope you are all as excited as I am for the upcoming month leading up to Christmas. I was so excited for the traditions to begin that I decided to make this Gingerbread Cutout Cookie while we put up our Christmas tree. It might be a little out of eagerness for the upcoming 12 days of cookies tradition! While the house filled with the sweet smell of spiced cookies, we happily sang along to Christmas music and decorated. Normally we don’t have gingerbread cookies during the tree setup but I’m sensing a new tradition!

Do you have a baked treat tradition when trimming the tree?

Ingredients:

• 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp. ground cloves
• 6 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
• ½ cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 2 tbsp. molasses
• 1 large egg
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

With an electric mixer, beat the butter, sugar, and molasses until fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until blended.

In a separate bowl, whisk the dry ingredients.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.

Roll out the dough in two sections between parchment paper and refrigerate about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pull out one of the sheets of gingerbread and cut with floured cookie cutters.

Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing and letting cool completely on cooling racks.