• ½ cup butter
• ½ cup Brer Rabbit “full flavor” molasses*
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 ½ cups sifted flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Cream butter, molasses, and sugar together in mixer. Add egg, and mix well. Add dry ingredients, and mix lightly. Chill dough overnight, then roll out to ½-inch thickness. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut shapes as desired. We cannot emphasize enough the wisdom and strategy of putting the rolled-out gingerbread ON your parchment-lined baking sheet BEFORE cutting the shapes. The shapes will stay the shape you intended and you will suffer less.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Allow to cool completely before assembling your house.

Royal Icing

We usually use royal icing to glue the gingerbread pieces together. You can make it from scratch or buy the commercial kind (much easier). Whatever you decide to do, remember that royal icing can take as much as a couple of hours to set. So if you’re planning an elaborate project, give yourself lots and lots of drying time.

• 4-5 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup warm water (105-115 degrees), plus a tablespoon or so as needed
• 3 tablespoons meringue powder (try Wilton or King Arthur Baking)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

In stand mixer, beat sugar, 1/3 cup water, meringue powder, vanilla, and cream of tartar. If you need a bit more water, add it by teaspoons until mixture is smooth. Beat until stiff.

To use, put a scant cup into a piping bag or on a plate (depends on what you’re doing with it) at a time. Cover the remaining icing with plastic wrap – don’t just cover the bowl, but smush the wrap up tightly against the surface of the icing to prevent air from getting to it. If you skip this, your icing will dry out and you’ll have to start over again.

Don’t skip the cream of tartar – it stabilizes the egg whites in the meringues, stops meringue from weeping, makes the royal icing stronger, and is practically magic in our opinions.

from our mom, Susan Marshall Labunski

*Yeah, we’re kind of uncomfortable about the brand name Brer Rabbit, and the fact that it’s named after a character in Joel Chandler Harris’ Uncle Remus stories. Seriously, they’re going to have to consider re-branding one of these days. On the other hand, this brand is our go-to for molasses; not only because Grammy always used it, but because it is unsulphured, made from sugar cane and has no preservatives, artificial flavors or colors. Also, as Jon Stewart says of Chick-Fil-A, “but it’s soooo tasty.”