SERVES 16 • PREP & CHILL: 3¾ HR
BAKE: 10 TO 12 MIN PER BATCH • DECORATE: DEPENDS ON SKILL
COOKIES
½ cup each solid vegetable shortening and unsalted butter (1 stick), melted and cooled
1 cup light molasses
1 cup packed brown sugar
½ cup water
1 large egg
1½ Tbsp ground ginger
1 Tbsp baking soda
1 tsp each ground cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 cups all-purpose flour
Icing & Decorations (recipe follows)
1 Trace outline of house and supporting triangle (printed here) on tracing paper. Cut out, then trace onto heavy cardboard and cut out a pattern of each.
2 Cookies: Beat all ingredients except flour in a large bowl with mixer on medium-high speed until well blended. Gradually beat in flour (dough will be soft). Divide in quarters. Pat each into a 1-in.-thick disk. Wrap individually in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
3 Heat oven to 350°F. Have baking sheet(s) ready.
4 On a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out 1 portion dough to ¼ in. thick. (Keep remaining dough refrigerated.)
5 Flour house and triangle patterns before cutting each cookie. Place floured side down on dough. With a small, sharp knife cut around patterns. Place cut out cookies 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheet(s). Save dough scraps.
6 Bake 10 to 12 minutes until cookies look dry but are still slightly soft. Cool on baking sheet on a wire rack 1 minute before removing to rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough. Gather dough scraps and reroll only once. Cut and bake as directed above.
PER SERVING: 594 cal, 8 g pro, 72 g car, 1 g fiber, 32 g fat (12 g saturated fat), 97 mg chol, 375 mg sod
Icing & Decorations
MAKES 2½ CUPS ICING
ICING
6 Tbsp pasteurized liquid egg whites
1 lb confectioners’ sugar
White, yellow, red, green and black paste or gel food colors (see Note)
DECORATIONS
Frosted Mini Chex cereal
All-Bran cereal
Tiny green circle, yellow star and red heart candy decors (see Note)
White and yellow decorating sugar (see Note)
White and red nonpareils (see Note)
Small multicolored candies (such as Nerds)
Green sprinkles (see Note)
1 Beat egg whites in a large bowl with mixer on high speed until frothy. Reduce speed to medium, gradually add sugar and beat 5 to 7 minutes until glossy, stiff peaks form when beaters are lifted. Keep icing covered with a damp paper towel until needed.
2 To color: For each color, put a small portion icing into a cup. Stir in food color a small amount at a time, mixing well after each addition, until desired shade. To pipe: Spoon icing into ziptop bags. Cut a tiny tip off one bottom corner.
3 To decorate: Let one color icing dry completely before spreading or piping another on top or beside the first. As a guide, use a toothpick to lightly scratch outlines of chimney, roof, door, window, etc., on surface of each house cookie. Spread white icing on roof as “snow” or as “glue” for cereal roofing and green candy decor “roof tiles.” Sprinkle white sugar on plain white roof to make it sparkle. Spread white icing “snow banks” at base of houses. Spread red icing on chimney for bricks, gray for stone. When dry, pipe white icing to outline bricks and stones. Sprinkle stones with a few white nonpareils. Glue on multicolored candies for lights.
4 Spread squares and rectangles of yellow icing for windows and doors. When dry, pipe white and red icing to edge of windows and doors and decorate. Use green sprinkles for candles in windows. Pipe on trees, wreaths, swags and sleds. Add candy stars to treetops; candy hearts, nonpareils and yellow sugar to decorate swags. Let dry completely.
5 Use white icing to glue one long edge of supporting triangle cookie to back of each house so it will stand on its own. Let dry before standing cookie up.
Planning tip: The dough can be refrigerated up to 1 week, or frozen up to 3 months. The undecorated baked cookies can be stored airtight at cool room temperature up to 2 weeks. Decorated cookies can be stored at room temperature up to 1 week if eating, longer if used just as a decoration.
