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Rustic Gingerbread Cookie Ornament
These rustic gingerbread cookie ornaments came to me as an idea not too long ago when I was looking at some antique silhouettes.
Silhouettes gained popularity in the eighteenth century as an economical alternative to oil-painted portraits. They consist of a 'shadow likeness' set on a background of a contrasting colour or shade.
Using two different gingerbread cookie recipes (one lighter coloured and one darker coloured), I re-created the silhouette look by layering the darker cookie on top of the lighter.
The Materials
You'll Need:
- craft knife
- printer
- permanent marker
- parchment paper
- rolling pin
- baking sheet
- gingerbread cookie recipe
- wooden skewer
- jute twine
- scissors
- small amount of icing or glue
The Making
Preheat your oven to 350F
 1. To make your Rustic Gingerbread Cookie Ornaments, you'll need to make up two batches of gingerbread cookie dough first. In one batch use brown sugar with black strap molasses to make a darker cookie. In the other batch, use white sugar and fancy molasses for a lighter cookie.
Follow the recipe until you are ready to cut out the gingerbread shapes and then come back to these instructions.
2. While your dough is cooling in the freezer, go on the internet and browse for images of animals.
If you are using Google, search for the image you want (such as a deer, bird or hare). Click on the images tab to see the images that are available for your search. In the blue bar that runs above the images (about 1" down from the top of the screen), you can see the words 'any type' and then a down selection arrow.
Click that arrow and select 'line drawings' - this allows you to see only line drawings of the image you want. Line drawings are perfect for this kind of project.
3. If necessary, re-size your image.
 4. Using a permanent marker, trace your image onto a piece of parchment paper. If your image has a lot of detail, you may want to simplify it.
Here's a picture of the deer I printed off and its trace. See how I simplified the picture by rounding out the fur on the chest? Fine detail in your gingerbread cookie ornament just gets lost as the cookie swells when it bakes.
Helpful Tip: When you are tracing out your animal, give a nice, angled curve to the bottom edged, rather than just a flat bottom...the curve gives it a bit more artistic flair.
5. Next, place the piece of parchment cutout over your darker gingerbread dough and cut around the paper.
6. Before you start to remove your cookie from the dough, it's helpful to lift away the edges with your craft knife. Then, clean up any 'crumby' areas with your knife so that you have a nice, smooth edge.
7. Transfer your cookie to a parchment paper covered cookie sheet for baking.
8. Trace an oval onto some parchment paper and cut it out. Place the parchment paper oval onto the
lighter coloured gingerbread dough and cut around it with your knife.
9. Using a wooden skewer, work a small hole into the top of your gingerbread oval. This is where you will thread the jute twine through. Transfer your oval onto the cookie sheet.
10. Bake your gingerbread cookies for 12 minutes, until done. I liked the fact that my cookies got a little dark around the edges as it gave them a great antiqued look.
11. Allow the cookies to cool completely.
12. Once the cookies are cool, put a small amount of icing (or glue if you don't plan on eating the cookies) onto the back of your animal silhouettes. Mount them on your ovals, being careful to make sure that the silhouette is centered properly.
13. Cut off an 8" length of jute twine and unwind it so that you have three strands. Thread one of the strands through the hole at the top of your cookie ornament and tie it in a knot. Trim any excess ends.
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