Eco & Edible Holiday Ornaments

Want to try something new to spruce up your holiday tree this Christmas?  Bake up a batch of these Gingerbread Cookies and use them to decorate your tree.  Then when you are ready to put away your tree, just eat up the decorations...if there's any left!

Caroline's Gingerbread Cookies - from the Whitewater Cooks at Home (one of my favourite Cookbooks).

Ingredients:
4 cups flour
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
2. tbsp. ginger
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg, slighly beaten
1/2 cup molasses

METHOD:
Sift together flour, cocoa, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda and salt in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the egg then gradually beat in the molasses.  Slowly beat in the flour until just combined.
Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead gently a few times.
Divide the dough into 4 pieces and flatten into disks.  Wrap each piece in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Prepare tow parchment lined baking sheets.
Roll dough out to desired thickness.  We like them pretty thin but it depends n how big your cutters are.  If little kids are handling them you may want to roll them a little thicker.  Cut out shapes and place on baking sheet.
Bake for about 10 minutes but be careful not to overbake.
Cool on a rack before decorating with your favourite icing.

If you are using these for decorating your tree, use a royal icing made with egg whites and flavoured with a bit of lemon juice.

Bigger cookies like gingerbread men will take longer to bake than small stars.  For a pretty and crunchy cookie, sprinkle cookies with course sugar after icing.