MAMA BEARS’ GINGERBREAD COOKIES

Let your imagination soar and decorate these delicious cookies with raisins, mini-chocolate chips, or candies.

Ingredients:

½ cup brown sugar                                                          ¾ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ cup butter                                                                     ¾ teaspoon salt
¼ cup shortening                                                             ½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup molasses                                                               ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ cup water                                                                      2 ½ cups all purpose flour
Candies or raisins for decoration

1.   Let butter soften at room temperature.
2.   Beat butter, shortening, molasses, brown sugar, and water one minute with electric mixer.
3.   Mix in salt, ginger, soda, and allspice.
4.   Beat in flour, 1/2 cup at a time.
5.   Divide dough into two pieces. Wrap each separately in waxed paper.
      Refrigerate 2 hours.
6.   Heat oven to 375°.
7   Sprinkle a pastry board with a little flour and rub some on the rolling pin.
8.   Roll one piece of dough until it is 1/8 inch thick. Rub more flour on rolling pin to keep dough   from sticking.
9.   Cut dough with bear cookie cutter and carefully place bear shapes on ungreased cookie sheet. Re-roll scraps of dough to cut more cookies.
10.  Repeat steps 7 through 9 with second piece of dough.
11.  Now is the time to add raisins or chocolate chips, if, using.
12. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes.
13.  Remove from oven. Let cookies sit for a minute or so before removing them to a cooling rack.
14. When cool, cookies can be decorated with icing and candies.

Makes 36 small gingerbread bears.

From Kathy Duval, author of THE THREE BEARS’ CHRISTMAS