This recipe may also be used to make a gingerbread house; simply roll the dough out slightly thicker than you would for the cookies. 

Preparation

For the gingerbread cookies, sift together flour, baking soda and spices in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, cream butter with an electric mixer. Beat brown sugar into the butter until fluffy, and then add eggs and molasses. 

With the mixer on low speed, incorporate dry ingredient mixture ¼ cup at a time. After the dry ingredients are fully incorporated, chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. 

Once dough is chilled, preheat oven to 350°F.

Roll out dough on a floured surface to ⅛-inch thick and use cookie cutters to make desired shapes. Place cookies on parchment paper-lined or greased and floured baking sheets, then bake for 10–12 minutes. 

For the royal icing, heat egg white, lemon juice and 1 cup powdered sugar in a pan on low heat, stirring frequently until it reaches 160°F. Remove from heat and mix in the rest of the powdered sugar with an electric mixer.

Let cookies cool completely, then decorate as desired with the royal icing. 

Gingerbread Cookie Lore:

Back in the Europe of the distant past, spices were hard to come by. And expensive! If you wanted to show off a whole spice trove in one sweet swoop, you’d serve your guests gingerbread as final punctuation to a good meal. Though its ingredients became more accessible over time, its place as a “special occasion” treat remained. As such, gingerbread became fixture fare at fairs. Its dough was pressed into carved wooden molds to take form as monarchs, animals or shapes with intricately detailed designs, then baked and decorated further.