Cook it Fresh

To kick off my series on Christmas cookies and goodies, I want to share my favorite recipe for cut-out cookies.  While I love the tradition of baking and decorating Christmas cookies, I do not generally like the taste of sugar cookies.  They often seem overly sweet and bland especially when frosted.  A couple of years ago I stumbled a recipe on cookinglight.com for gingerbread cookies that had all the attributes sugar cookies often lack.  They are super flavorful and hold their shape well when baked but still have a great, soft texture.  Although gingerbread cookies are traditionally cut only in the shape of people and decorated simply, I cut these cookies in all different shapes and decorate them with colored frosting sugars like regular sugar cookies.  Even if you love normal sugar cookies, this recipe is a nice change from the usual and they taste and smell just like Christmas should!