Run, Run, As Fast As You Can

Last night I took a break from (thinking about) studying for my last final to make gingerbread cookies. My mom always makes spice cookies around this time of year, which I suppose are pretty much the same as gingerbread cookies, except they're rolled into a ball and coated with sugar instead of being cut into the shape of a man. A man is so much more exciting than a circle, though, with one exception* that you will see later.

I used a recipe from Simply Recipes, and it turned out to be a cinch to make and produced quite tasty results.

The best part of the recipe, which I suppose is true of any cut-out cookies if you put your mind to it, is that you don't need any special cookie cutter. You can either make a stencil or, as I did, freehand it. I ended up with a few pretty freakish gingerbread people, but generally they turned out well.

Once you get bored with cutting out little people, you can cut out other random objects. I made letters, a dreidel, a crown, some blobs, an apostrophe and something even more exciting that you will see below.

Hog pile! Or Russian (gingerbread) dolls.

*Pac Man!

These cookies are decent on their own, but a big glob of frosting makes them even better. I had some leftover frosting from my last batch of these, which allowed me to focus my attention back on thinking about starting to study instead of on whipping up a batch of frosting. What a relief that was!

Update: A smear of Nutella on a gingerbread cookie is absolutely wonderful.