Thick and Chewy Gingerbread Cookies/ Épais et moelleux biscuits au gingembre

Thick and Chewy Gingerbread Cookies/ Épais et moelleux biscuits au gingembre

3 cups flour (689.76 grams farine)
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed (172.44 grams cassonade)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate de soude)
1/2 teaspoon salt (sel)
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon (cannelle moulue)
1 Tablespoon ground ginger (gingembre moulu)
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (clou de girofle moulu)
1 1/2 sticks butter, slightly softened (172.44  beurre ramolli)
3/4 cup molasses (172.44 grams melasse)
2 Tablespoons milk (lait)

Combine your dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Then mix in the brown sugar. In another bowl, mix together the molasses and milk till evenly combined. Cut up your butter into tablespoon pieces and sprinkle them over your flour mixture. With a pastry blender or knives or even with your fingers, work the butter into the dough until it resembles a fine meal. Then add a third of your molasses/milk mix to the bowl and combine. Repeat two more times until all the molasses/milk is incorporated into the flour.

By now, you should have a soft, even dough. Gather it into a ball and divide it in two. Place one half of the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap and roll it to a 1/4 inch thickness. Repeat with the other dough half. Stack the two plastic wrap sandwiched dough sheets on a cookie sheet and refrigerate for two hours or overnight.

Once the dough is firm, remove it from the fridge. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Take one sheet of dough, flip it over and peel off the bottom piece of plastic wrap. Place the plastic wrap back on and flip it all back. Now peel off the top sheet of plastic wrap and begin cutting out your cookies with your cookie cutters, placing the cookies onto the parchment-lined trays as you cut. Bake the cookies for 8-11 minutes, depending on how large your cookies are (8 minutes for 3-inch shapes and up to 11 minutes for 5-inch shapes).

They should be set when taken out of the oven, but not hard. Let them cool on their trays for a few minutes, then let them finish cooling on a wire rack. When the cookies are totally cool, you are free to decorate them however you want.