Gingerbread House Cookies

We got the house. WE GOT THE HOUSE. The Cascade Heights house, three streets from where I grew up, the one with the gas stove and the granite countertops and the magnolia tree outside the kitchen window. The seller accepted Derek's counter-offer Wednesday afternoon and I stood in the kitchen of the College Park townhouse — the kitchen that held two babies and a broken marriage and a rebuilt life and a blended family and a Folgers can — and I cried the way you cry when something you've been building toward for twenty years finally arrives.

Three streets from Mama's house. Three streets from the brick ranch where Curtis and Brenda raised Darnell and me and Andre. Three streets from the kitchen where I stood on a step stool and learned to stir. The universe is a circle and the circle brought me home. Not to the same house — that one belongs to another family now — but to the same neighborhood, the same azaleas, the same sound of church bells on Sunday morning, the same air that carries the memory of Mama's cooking even though the kitchen has been cold for seven years.

Told the kids. Marcus: "We're going back to Cascade Heights? That's full circle, Mama." Jasmine: "Does it have a piano?" (Not yet, but it will.) Isaiah: "Is there a hoop in the driveway?" (No, but Derek is already researching portable basketball goals.) Zoe: "I already painted it." (She had. The "future kitchen" in her series. She painted our house before we bought it. The girl is a prophet with watercolors.)

Curtis. I told Curtis last. I sat with him in his basement apartment — the apartment Derek built, the apartment that will become a proper first-floor suite in the new house — and I said, "Daddy, we bought a house in Cascade Heights." He was quiet. Then he said, "Which street?" I told him. He was quiet again. Then he said, "Your mama would have walked over every morning." Yes. She would have. She would have walked over with a Folgers can and an opinion and stayed until dinner. And the fact that she can't is the only wrong thing about this right thing. But the magnolia tree is there. And the gas stove is there. And three streets over, the ghost of Mama's kitchen is there. And we're going home.

Zoe already painted the kitchen. Marcus called it full circle. Isaiah wanted a hoop. Jasmine wanted a piano. And me? I needed to make something with my hands — something that looked like a house, something warm and spiced that filled a kitchen the way Mama’s cooking used to fill hers. These Gingerbread House Cookies aren’t a Christmas tradition in our house; they’re a homecoming tradition now. We made a batch the night the offer was accepted, four kids crowded around the College Park kitchen island one last time, decorating little cookie houses that looked nothing like Cascade Heights but felt exactly like it.

Prep Time: 30 min | Cook Time: 12 min | Total Time: 1 hr 15 min (includes chilling) | Servings: 24 cookies

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp fine salt
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
For the icing: 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 2–3 tbsp milk, food coloring (optional)

Instructions

Whisk dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar. In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, beat the softened butter and brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add wet ingredients. Add the egg, molasses, and vanilla extract to the butter mixture. Beat until fully combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Combine and chill. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing on low until a soft dough forms. Divide the dough in half, flatten each half into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (or up to 2 days).
Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Lightly flour a clean work surface.
Roll and cut. Working with one disk at a time, roll the dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness. Use a house-shaped cookie cutter (or any cutter you love) to cut out cookies. Place them 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets.
Bake. Bake for 10–12 minutes, until the edges are set and the centers look just barely done — they firm up as they cool. Do not overbake. Let cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the icing. Whisk together the powdered sugar and milk until smooth, adding milk one teaspoon at a time until you reach a thick but pipeable consistency. Divide and tint with food coloring if desired.
Decorate. Pipe or spread icing onto completely cooled cookies. Let kids go wild. Every house looks different. That’s the point.

Nutrition (per serving)

Gingerbread House Cookies — We Bought Our Way Back Home