Gloria Heeter's Best Gingerbread Cookies

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Title: 1988 3rd Place: Gloria Heeter's Best Gingerbread Cookies
Categories: Cookies, Holiday
Yield: 24 servings

1 c Corn oil margarine
1 c Molasses
1 c Sugar
1 Egg
4 c Flour
2 ts Baking powder
1 ts Baking soda
3 ts Ground cinnamon
2 ts Ground cloves
2 ts Ground ginger
1 ts Ground nutmeg
Currants, raisins, silver
Balls and candy,
For decoration
1 Egg yolk mixed w/1 ts water
Icing for decorating

Preparation time: 25 minutes Chilling time: 8 hours or overnight
Baking time: 7 to 10 minutes

1. Beat margarine, sugar and molasses in a large mixing bowl. Add
egg and mix well.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon,
cloves, ginger and nutmeg. Add to butter mixture; mix well.
3. Divide dough into 4 equal portions on a large piece of plastic
wrap. Wrap and shape into a flat disk about 1 inch thick. Refrigerate
until firm, about 8 hours, or freeze for 2 hours. (Dough can be
refrigerated up to 3 days.)
4. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Working with 1 disk of the dough at a
time, roll out on a well-floured board, dusting the rolling pin as
you work. Dough will be very soft and can be difficult to work with
so work quickly and use plenty of flour. Using cookie cutters dipped
in flour, cut into desired shapes. Put cookies 1 inch apart on an
ungreased cookie sheet. Use currants or candy for eyes or buttons, if
desired.
5. Bake until lightly puffed, 7 to 10 minutes. First batch may be
puffier because they will have less flour rolled in them. While still
warm, paint with egg yolk wash if desired. Cool on wire racks. Cool
completely, then decorate as desired with icing.
Icing: Mix confectioners' sugar with a small amount of water until
thick and spreading consistency. Add food coloring if desired and put
in a small plastic bag. Cut a small hole in one corner and drizzle
icing out onto the cooled cookies.
Note: A 4-inch gingerbread cookie cutter was used in testing.
Oak Brook's Gloria Heeter is a newcomer to the Chicago area and
brings her favorite gingerbread cookie with her from Kansas City,
Kan. "About nine years ago, my neighbor, Diane Collins, brought them
over for Halloween in Halloween shapes," she says. "I took out some
of the egg yolks and substituted corn oil margarine rather than
shortening, which sometimes can have palm oil in it." Calling them
"truly a cookie for all seasons," Heeter once even made them for her
golden retriever's first birthday party. "We invited the neighborhood
kids in for punch and cookies-cookies shaped like dogbones." At
Christmas, though, "I typically print the names of each person on the
cookies, place them in a plastic bag and decorate them with a red and
green ribbon," writes Heeter of her personalized gingerbread people.
"A handmade gift is always filled with love." from the Chicago
Tribune annual Food Guide Holiday Cookie Contest December 8, 1988

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