Dinosaur Gingerbread Cookies

This holiday season, I encourage you to try my version of the Paleo Diet— a diet that certainly consists of paleo foods—that is, dinosaur-shaped paleo foods.

Swap Santa’s usual midnight snack with milk in a mason jar and dinosaur gingerbread cookies: made just like classic gingerbread men, just as tasty, just as addictive, yet I seem to prefer any treat more when it’s shaped like a tyrannosaurus.

Dinosaurs are great, but the true purpose of this MJK post is to preach the perks of dipping cookies in milk from a mason jar. If you’re like me and never wants to finish the glass of milk once the cookies are gone, you don’t have to—you can put the lid back on your jar for the next milk and cookie sesh (I leave the rules on doubling-dipping up to you).

Dinosaur Gingerbread Cookies

Recipe from love and olive oil, with slight adaptations.

Special equipment: Dinosaur-shaped cookie cutters

Ingredients  

Gingerbread Cut-cut Cookies

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 2 1/4 cups molasses
• 8 cups all-purpose flour*
• 1 1/2 teaspoons allspice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 3/4 + 1/4 cup water
• 1 tablespoon baking soda

Icing 

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a mixture, cream butter and brown sugar. Add molasses and mix well.
3. Mix spices with 1 cup of the flour and add to mixture. Slowly add the rest of flour about 1/2 cup at a time, alternating adding 1/4 cup water and flour. A dough will start to form.
4. In separate bowl dissolve baking soda in 1/4 cup water. Add mixture to dough. Mix well.
5. Cover and chill dough for at least an hour before rolling out. (At this point you can also freeze the dough for up to a month. Thaw completely before rolling out.)
6. On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4 inches thick. Use cutters to cut shapes. Arrange cookies on a slightly greased baking sheet.
7. Bake cookies for approximately 8-10 minutes or more (longer cooking times will yield stiffer cookies). Allow to cool a few minutes on cookie sheets, then transfer to cooling racks and cool completely before icing.
8. To make icing, stir together milk and vanilla extract. Slowly add sugar until creamy and stiff. Place icing in a plastic baggie and cut the tip. Decorate as you wish. Let icing dry before serving with a glass of milk in a mason jar.

Servings: 40 small cookies