Baking Homemade Gingerbread Cookies with a Pastry Chef

 Our friend Jeff is a pastry chef and over the weekend of December 6-7, he and his dog Myrtle visited and we had a holiday baking adventure. Today's blog is about the baking experience and includes the recipe so you can try it, to! 

A CHEF IS ALWAYS PREPARED - Jeff sent me a list of ingredients needed, and I told him I had the flour, cinnamon, vanilla and brown sugar, but he still brought all the fixins to make homemade Gingerbread men. He's a pastry chef in his career, so he always ensures he has the ingredients! 

WHY A GINGERBREAD MAN?  There's nothing like adding a sweet man to your life. :)  

(Photo: Jeff preparing the dough) 

PART 1: PREPARATION -  On Saturday, we prepared the gingerbread dough. It took about a hour to put it together. Jeff worked on one part of the ingredients and I worked on the other. Then they were mixed to make the dough. We doubled the recipe, so if you do that, just know you need a HUGE mixing bowl!  Jeff made three mounds of dough  and wrapped it in saran wrap. The dough needed to be refrigerated a couple of hours, but we let it sit overnight. 

(Photo: Rob was assigned to decorating them)

PART 2: MAKING THE COOKIES - We spent the entire morning on Sunday baking what seems like 200 or so Gingerbread men cookies. Jeff cleaned the surface of the counter and covered it with flour. He rolled out each round of dough into a rectangle and cut out the gingerbread men.  We lined the cookie sheets with parchment paper (which I thought would have burned, but I learned it doesn't). Each batch took exactly 11 minutes. 

 (Photo: Gingerbread men cut outs before they went into the oven. All spread out on parchment paper in a cookie sheet.) 

FROSTING AND FINALIZING - After the bake, lift the parchment paper up with the cookies and place it on a counter to decorate. So easy!  ** Jeff created the frosting mixture with 4 cups of powdered sugar and other ingredients I can't remember!!  Of course he brought his own frosting bags and decorating nozzles. I did the decorating though, so some of the Gingerbread men look like they're wearing sunglasses, or have weird eyes.  When you have arthritis in your hands, as I do, it gets difficult after the first 50 cookies... so I had to take a break. - They dried for an hour and then went into the freezer to harden. 

It was a fun collaboration and will likely be one of my favorite memories from this Christmastime. So if you get a chance, bake with a friend!