Pink Gingerbread Robot Monsters

Gingerbread and I just do not get along.

















This recipe originally calls for the dough to be made in a food processor, but since I don't own one, I did it by hand and used an electric mixer to finish things off.




















Things in our apartment are a little topsy turvey, and I can't find our normal cookie cutters. Instead I used the robot cookie cutter that I ordered from William Sonoma last year. You can re-order the top, middle, and bottom parts of each robot on the cutter. I think it would probably work better on sugar cookie dough. Gingerbread dough is a little firmer and it stuck easily in the robot's parts. The instructions recommend spraying it with cooking spray, and that seemed to do the trick.


















I made these for my friend Jess, who took the LSAT on Saturday, and I intended them to have either red or green icing. Since the icing looked a little pink, I added tad of the blue/purple color and it turned a sort of amish looking pink color. What's more, I added the icing with my piping bag to the depressions in the cookie that the robot cutter made, and many of them ended up looking like boobs.






















Hence the name, Pink Gingerbread Robot Monsters.
Robots are meant to look scary, right? Like anything, it was the first time I'd made them and something was bound to go awry. I think I may try the robot cookie cutter again for sugar cookies.

Gingerbread Cookies
from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tbs cinnamon
1 tbs ginger
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
12 tbs butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup light molasses
2 tbs milk

Combine flour, dark brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, and cloves in a large bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter, two knives, or work it in with your finger tips until it looks like a fine meal.
While using a mixer on medium low speed, add in molasses and milk. Continue mixing until a soft dough forms.
Divide the dough in half. Working with half the dough at a time, roll it out to 1/8 inch thick on a piece of parchment paper. Slide both halves of dough onto a cookie sheet and refrigerate for 20 minutes (or until firm).

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cut shapes as desired out of the rolled dough and lay on a two-parchment lined baking sheet, spaced about 3/4'' apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheet 2 minutes before transferring to a wire wrack to cool. Let cool completely on the wrack, then decorate as you like.