MOLDED COOKIES RECIPE WITH PICTURE RECIPES

Steps:

• NOTE: After the dough is made, I cut it in half and use the butter wrapper to keep the dough from drying out when I'm rolling the dough into balls. The dough will feel very gritty, as if there were sand in the dough. When you roll each ball, it will be ready to be stamped when the grittiness disappears and the dough is very soft and pliable. I only use enough dough so that when it is stamped down, the stamp completely covers the cookie.
• Heat oven to 350 degrees.
• Measure out the almond paste. Take it manually out of the measuring cup and tear it into tiny bits of almond paste, about the size of the pad on your thumb. Scatter it around the soft butter.
• Beat butter and almond paste in a medium-sized bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until well combined. This will not mix "by hand". It takes the beaters to pulverize the almond paste enough to mix it into the dough.
• Beat in sugar.
• Stir in flour with a wooden spoon. If necessary, knead in remaining flour with your hands. The dough initially appears very crumbly. However, the heat from your hands when you knead it and then roll each ball makes it very smooth and workable. Once dough is made, divide into two equal parts and cover with the butter wrappers to keep pliable and moist while you roll out each ball.
• Stamped Cookie instructions:.
• Form dough into 1 1/2 inch balls. Roll dough into your hands until it feels very pliable. At first, it will feel very gritty but the warmth from your hands will blend the butter and almond paste. When it feels smooth like Playdoh, it is ready to be stamped.
• Arrange balls on a parchment-lined cookie sheets 3 inches apart.
• Using a 1.5 inch or 2 inch cookie stamp dipped into granulated sugar, press firmly into each cookie to flatten dough and make patterns on the top.
• NOTE: When I use a stamp at first, I will touch dough to it to transfer "fat" onto the surface so the sugar will stick. Then, after each and every cookie that is stamped, place the stamper back into a shallow dish of sugar so it is coated each time.
• Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes or only until the edges become the slightest shade of light brown. It takes a long time for these cookies to bake; begin checking for the slight brown edges after 10 minutes.
• Slide cookies off of the baking sheet, onto your counter, still attached to the parchment paper. Allow to cool 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• NOTE: These are one of the BEST keeping cookies that I've ever made. I had "misplaced" some of these in the kitchen for a month, opened the container they were stored in and was ready to toss them. DH stopped me, tried one and exclaimed, "They're as great as the day you first made them!".
• If you have the time and really want to amp up the volume on these cookies, you can use a small brush and apply cookie paint or cookie glitter to the raised surfaces of the cookie.

Steps:

• Direction for the clear sugar glaze: Combine all wet ingredients together.
• Direction for the gingerbread cookies: Combine the flour, sugar, spices and the liquid mixture together either by hand or in a heavy standard mixer using the flat blade (not the whisk). Mix until the dough holds together, adding 1 or 2 tablespoons of water only if necessary to bind the dough. Knead the dough into a solid mass and place into a tightly sealed zipper bag. Let the dough rest for 1 hour or refrigerate overnight.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough with a plain rolling pin about ½ to 5/8 inch thick, depending on the depth of your cookie mold. Using a pastry brush, flour the surface of your cookie mold. Press firmly onto the flat surface of the dough and then lift the mold straight up. Re-flour the mold for every pressing.
• Cut and place the cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Let cookies dry for 8 — 12 hours.
• Bake at 300 degrees for 12 minutes. Large cookies will need 14-15 minutes.
• If desired, glaze the gingerbread cookies as soon as they come out of the oven and before you remove them to a cooling rack.
• If needed, soften cookies with slices of apple on firm bread (rye) for a day or two. Keeps well.