Baking FAIL

I made some pumpkin cookies last weekend for Halloween (come to think of it, they didn't turn out that great either, tastewise). While I was digging out my Halloween cookie cutters, I came across one in the shape of a maple leaf. So pretty. I decided I had to make gingerbread cookies, and I had to use that cookie cutter.

I had some time today, so I dug out my trusty copy of The Complete Cookie. I have kind of a love/hate relationship with this book. There are some amazing cookie recipes, including some of the authors' family favorites (some with a nice twist), but they're not the easiest cookies in the world. Which I was reminded of again today.

Gingerbread dough is notoriously hard to work with. It tends to be on the sticky side, and you typically have to work with it when it's cold. But if you treat it right, it can be very, very good to you. Or so I thought.

I mixed up the ingredients. The dough was pretty darn sticky, but I let that slide. I put it in the freezer for about an hour and a half, 3 times longer than recommended. I rolled it out between 2 lightly floured (ha!) sheets of wax paper. And then it all went horribly wrong.

I peeled back the top layer of wax paper, and half the dough came off with it. I cut out a whopping 2 leaf forms out of 4 tries. The other 2 refused to come off of the wax paper.

I let those 2 cookies bake while I tried again with more frozen dough, and more flour, and more waxed paper. No dice. After many bad words in the kitchen (thank goodness S was sleeping), I tossed the rest of the dough and shared the 2 cookies with J.

If I'm feeling particularly ambitious, I might try again with more flour. Or maybe I'll find another recipe.

So, so disappointing