Sourdough Discard Gingerbread Cookies

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and molasses and beat until well combined. Mix in the discard, egg, and vanilla (the butter may separate here - this is okay!).
Add the dry ingredients and mix until no dry flour remains. It will be stiff! Divide in half, shape each half into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for at least 3 hour, up to 2 days. I highly recommend chilling this dough overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Working with one disc at a time, unwrap and roll out on a lightly floured surface. Rotate the dough between rolls to ensure it doesn't stick to the work surface, adding more flour to the counter or top of the dough as needed. Roll it out to ¼-inch thickness. If the dough edges begin to crack, you can press them back together with your hands. Cut out your desired shapes and place on the prepared baking sheet. Gather the scraps into a ball and re-roll. You can re-roll this dough a few times after cutting your shapes out - just be careful not to add too much flour when rolling or it will dry out your dough. When I've gotten as many shapes as I think I can from a piece of dough, I like to roll the remaining scraps into a square (using my bench scraper to straighten out the edges), and cut into 2-inch squares to bake and decorate as houses.
Bake for 8-10 minutes, until puffed up. If you have particularly small cookie cutters, you'll want to start checking around 6 minutes. If you have extra large cookie cutters, it could take upward of 10 minutes. I think these cookies are better slightly over-baked vs. under-baked, so if you're not sure if they're done, give them a minute or 2 longer.
Cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Once they're completely cool, you can decorate! Cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Ingredients

Directions

Nutrition