I mentioned in my first Little Women post that Jo celebrates Christmas while living away from home for the very first time. She loves New York but is a little homesick…until a box of homemade gifts arrives from home, delicious bits of crunchy gingerbread among them! This recipe from Taste of Home is jut the sort of sweet, fragrant, gently spicy cookie that would warm my heart and lift my spirits if I were Jo March. And to make them even more in keeping with our Little Women theme, I decided to decorate my cookies to look like the March sisters!

NOTE: The dough needs to chill for at least 4 hours before baking.

Little Gingerbread Women

“The things were just what I wanted, and all the better for being made instead of bought. Beth’s new ‘ink bib’ was capital, and Hannah’s box of hard gingerbread will be a treasure. ”
— Little Women

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar (the original recipe calls for a full cup, but I like it better with less)
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup molasses
• You can use whatever you want to decorate. You can buy pre-made icing, whip up your own and dye it the colors you want, or skip icing entirely and just use food pens. Here’s a picture of what I used.

Makes approx. 5 dozen cookies

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In a medium bowl, stir together your flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a standing mixer, beat your butter and sugar on medium speed until creamed and fluffy. Beat in the egg and molasses until fully combined. Gradually beat in the flour mixture.

   

3. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
4. Preheat your oven to 350° and lightly flour a flat surface. Remove your gingerbread dough from the refrigerator and grab a wad of dough about the size of a baseball. It will be very stiff, so knead it into a ball until it’s soft.
5. Roll out the dough on your floured surface until it’s about 1/8″ thickness, regularly reflouring the surface and flipping the dough.
   
6. Using a stencil or a cookie cutter, cut out your gingerbread women. I used a stencil I found online. If necessary, knead and roll more dough until you have 16 gingerbread women.
   
7. On two ungreased cookie sheets, lay your gingerbread women about 2″ apart. You should be able to fit about 8 per sheet. Since I planned to have my “Meg” cookies wear their hair in buns, pressed a ball of dough the size of a pea against the top of the head for 2 gingerbread women on every pan (that would be 1 out of every 4 cookies, since there are 4 March sisters).
   
8. Bake your cookies for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are firm. Allow them to cool on the sheets for 2 minutes. Then transfer them to wire racks to cool completely.
   
9. Repeat Steps 5-8 with your remaining dough.
10. Time for decorating! As I said in the ingredients list, you can pretty much decorate however you want. I used mostly icing and sprinkles, but I used a food pen to draw the faces.
    
    

    FOR MEG: I used purple icing for the dress and added white pearl sprinkles while the icing was still wet. Then I drew her face with a food pen and used chocolate icing with a drawing tip to trace the outline of her head and the top of her bun.

    

    FOR JO: I drew the dress with white icing then traced a blue criss-cross pattern on top. After drawing her face, I used chocolate icing fitted with a drawing tip for the hair. I made the curls around her head by drawing a loop pattern, and when I came to the braid, I drew a zig-zag line one way then went back and drew another zig-zag line over it going the opposite way. I finished the braid with a blue icing bow.

    

    FOR BETH: I drew the dress in teal icing, then used white icing and some white pearl sprinkles to give her a Peter Pan collar with buttons. I drew her face, then I drew an upside-down “U” with chocolate icing and a drawing tip, starting below her shoulder, going over her head, and ending below her opposite shoulder. I added a dot of teal icing for a pin in her hair.

    

    FOR AMY: I used pink icing to make the dress and scattered multicolored sprinkles over it before it dried. After drawing her face, I made her hair by drawing a upside down “U” with a zig-zag line, similar to Beth’s except bigger and done with yellow icing. Then I did another zig-zag “U” going the opposite way to fill out her hair a little more and give it a wavy look. I finished by drawing a blue icing bow in her hair.

1. Serve to cure homesickness and spread Christmas cheer! 🙂