I have a cousin who is just incredible at decorating cookies, and on a recent visit I asked her to show me a few tricks. I also just love gingerbread cookies, and I wanted to come up with my own special version of them. Since they turned out so well I thought I'd share them with you!

This was my favourite of the cookies I decorated.  I have a lot to learn, but it was really fun to try and I will definitely practice my royal icing skills another time! — This was my favourite of the cookies I decorated. I have a lot to learn, but it was really fun to try and I will definitely practice my royal icing skills another time!

These cookies are perfect for those of you who - like me - like a dark, spiced gingerbread cookie. The ginger flavour is quite pronounced since there is both ground, and candied ginger in them. The finished result is not too sweet which is perfect since I knew we were going to be icing them. If you like a sweeter cookie and are not planning on doing any icing, I would probably increase the sugar a little bit. I used honey in my recipe instead of molasses, so they do have a bit of a different taste, and have a soft texture after baking that is quite nice. We also added some "Black Onyx" cocoa powder from Silk Road Spice Merchant that gives them a really lovely deep chocolate undertone, but don't buy this cocoa especially unless you want to. It will work with whatever good quality dark cocoa you have available to you. Feel free to tweak the spices as you like. We went lighter on the clove this time since my mom isn't as big of a fan.

Gingerbread Cutout Cookies

Ingredients

3 cups Flour
1 cup Butter
3/4 cup Sugar
3/4 cup Dark Honey
1 Egg
2 tbsp Chai Tea (can sub water)
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Vanilla
2 tsp Ground Ginger
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp Ground Cardamom
1/2 tsp Ground Clove
1 tsp Allspice
1 1/2 tbsp Dark Cocoa Powder
1/2 cup Finely Minced Candied Ginger

Takes approx 1 hour, yields about 3 dozen.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Cream Butter, Honey, and Sugar in a blender until it lightens in colour and the sugar crystals are beginning to dissolve. Add egg, chai tea, and vanilla and mix until emulsified.
Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl, and make sure there are no lumps. Sifting is helpful here.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and when fully mixed throw in the minced ginger. Make sure it is a really fine mince since these will be rolled out quite thin.
Wrap dough well and refrigerate for a few hours, or preferably overnight.
Roll out cookies and bake for 10 - 12 minutes. The edges should be just starting to brown (it's a bit hard to tell with these dark cookies, but you'll be able to). The cookies will remain fairly soft due to the honey in the dough, but they should be firm enough that you don't feel they will fall apart.
When they are completely cool decorate them as you like!