Gingerbread Dreidels

Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt in a large bowl and set aside. Beat the margarine and brown sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy. Mix in the eggs and molasses.

Add flour mixture, mixing on low until just combined. Divide dough into thirds and wrap each part in plastic. Refrigerate until cold and firm, about one hour or up to two days.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to a 1/4-inch thick. (The easiest way to do this is roll the dough out between two pieces of parchment paper. Lightly flour the paper on the bottom). Cut the dough into shapes of your choice, such as dreidels or (if you want to be more traditional) gingerbread men. Transfer the cookies to a parchment lined cookie sheet, spacing them at least two inches apart. If the dough gets too soft while working with it place the dough, still on the parchment, on a cookie sheet in the freezer for a few minutes to firm up. Once the cookies are cut out and on the baking sheets refrigerate them the cookies firm up again, about 15 minutes.

Bake cookies until crisp but not dark, 12 to 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

When cool, you can decorate the cookies with icing and sprinkles. When you pipe designs, sprinkle the icing with sanding sugar and let it sit for five minutes before tapping off the excess sugar. Then let the icing set completely at room temperature, which will take an hour or so, depending on how thick it is.

Store cookies between layers of parchment or waxed paper in an airtight container for up to a week.

Royal Icing

Mix water and egg whites in the bottom of a mixing bowl. Let stand 3-5 minutes. Add lemon juice or cream of tartar. Beat on high speed until stiff peaks form. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time and mix well. The resulting icing should also be about stiff peak thick. Transfer to an airtight container and store for up to two weeks.

This icing may be thicker than necessary depending on how you are using the icing to decorate. Transfer some of the icing to a bowl and stir in a bit of water or lemon juice at a time until it reaches the desired consistency. If using the icing for flooding a cookie a line drawn in the frosting with a knife should melt back into the rest of the icing by a count of 10. If it gets there before 7 or 8 add a bit more icing to thicken it a bit.