This was so frustrating, hard to make. i would not recommend this to any one who wants to have a good time making ginger bread. hard to mix, won't hold shape. i have no clue how i would have cut any thing out of it? too dry? i added butter and eggs.. it is in the oven now, hope it turns out, what a waist if it doesn't.

The dough is easy to put together and rather tasty. With a ""heavy duty"" mixer, you'll be able to mix the entire thing with the machine. We have yet to assemble our house, but that's next as soon as my son wakes from his nap. I do not recommend waiting for 30 minutes baking time to then cut the pieces out. It was not very easy and very messy. I would highly suggest you cut your pieces prior to putting them in the oven.

my stand mixer almost gave up the ghost . Dough was quite stiff. I sifted the flour, but ended up finishing it off by hand kneading the last of the flour. I was wanting to make christmas trees using five different sizes of star cookie cutters. The dough worked out fantastically well, from this single recipe I was able to make five trees using three cookies per size -75 cookies ranging in size from 4.5"" to 1.25"" plus mini angels for the tops. The cookies kept their exact shape no spreading what so ever. To me they taste just like the ginger snaps I remember as a kid in England. Still dough left for few cookies

I dont understand when to cut the gingerbread, since if i cut it when it's mid bake then the dough is allready half dry and can not be used for shaping into a dough to make more cookies. I figured that most recipe's tells people to cut it before hand so i went with that.

I loved this recipe - it made light, crunchy gingerbread (I rolled it quite thin) that was perfect for a traditional gingerbread house. And it was delicious. I found it really easy to cut it into shapes halfway through cooking - the important thing I think is to leave it in the tray and work quite fast while it's soft as it hardens as it cools down. Cutting it this way means you get really straight sides which helps when you cement your house together. I struggled with the measurements (I don't get 'cups' as I'm British!). I found I used far less flour than the recipe suggested, but I don't think this is one of those recipes where absolute precision is vital. As I rolled it thin I baked it for a much shorter time than in the recipe.

This is some of the best gingerbread I've ever had. It comes out much softer than other recipes I've made and is very tasty . . . I sent some to school in my daughter's lunchbox, and the other kids raved. I accidentally skipped the step where you were supposed to cut it mid-baking, and cut it beforehand. I only realized that when I saw the review that mentioned that. It came out all right, cutting it before, but it would probably come out more even if I did it the way they said. The only criticism I have of this recipe is that I don't think it needed to be baked quite as long as they said, so check it, and that it wasn't as good for individual cookies (which we made with the extra) as for the big house.

this might be ok if you were not going to eat it. I think it is difficult to partly cook and then cut out the dough. The other recipe which calls for butter and an egg seemed to come out better and be much more workable -- easier to handle and yummy.