November was super crazy for me. I moved out of my parents house and then got a new job all within a two week period. Like an official, adult, full-time job. It took some major adjusting but I feel like I’m finally getting the hang of my new routine.
The great thing about my new apartment is the natural light is INSANE. The bad thing is that the kitchen is ridiculously small and our washer and dryer are in there, but hey. My roommate and I are making it work. And my dad built this awesome counter top to go over them so we have some more space!
Some people went all out and brought their slow cookers to work. Some departments set up little tables for all of their contributions. My friend Emily made these amazing peppermint Oreo truffles with pieces of peppermint Andes candies IN the truffles. I decided to make some classic gingerbread cookies, except I have the inability to make plain things apparently. So I added brown butter and maple extract!
Also I don’t think my Christmas sprinkles made it to my apartment after the move, so these are neon. They kind of match the Christmas ornaments I bought at Target. 🙂
Brown Butter Maple Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter browned and cooled back into a solid, room temp
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 cup hot water
- 1 cup molasses
- 2 tsp maple extract
- 5 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp allspice
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer) beat butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy. In another bowl, stir together the baking soda and hot water until baking soda is dissolved. Stir in the molasses.
- In a third bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and salt. Add a third of the flour and molasses to the butter mixture, and mix well. Add half of the remaining flour and molasses, and then finally the last of the flour and molasses. Then add the maple extract and mix well.
- Cover the cookie dough and let it firm up in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to an hour. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat baking mats. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly flour a clean surface and roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. (I didn't roll out all the dough at once. I broke it up into about three or four sections.) The key to rolling out the dough and keeping it firm enough to lift your shapes is to keep it cold. Put the dough back in the fridge or freezer when you need to.
- Cut out the shapes and transfer them to the prepared baking sheets, leaving about half an inch between them. (These cookies don't spread out very much.) Bake for about 10 minutes (this will vary depending on the size of your cookies), let the cookies cool for 5-10 minutes and transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat until you've used all your cookie dough! This recipe makes a ton. Decorate and enjoy!
Notes
Recipe adapted from Southern Living. Check out this recipe for royal icing as well!
Congratulations on your new job! At a law firm!!! But I miss being able to eat all the wonderful things you make. These cookies look very festive and I’ll bet they have the visual appeal to make people want to pick one up and eat all of it. 🙂
Love em! Totally pinned!
These sound amazing!! Love the addition of browned butter and maple. I’m a firm believer brown butter makes everything better! Pinned 🙂
These are gorgeous! I literally laughed out loud when I read your first paragraph because the same thing happened to me with my recent sugar cookies post. I snapped some pictures and decided they were decent enough to post. I love maple anything, and these cookies are really calling to me. Congrats on your new job and move! Ps. the neon sprinkles are perfect.
These look beautiful! I’m sure they were just as tasty!
Congrats on the new job and the move! Not only does brown butter make everything better, but maple extract sounds so good in these!
Hey Beth CONGRATS on getting full time job! I’m still working on that part myself so I know how stressful looking for one can be. 🙂 These cookies look lovely and woohoo to tons of natural light! 😀
Congrats on the job and apartment! So exciting! And these cookies… magical. Doesn’t brown butter make everything like 10x better?!?!