Gingerbread Cookie 'Play Doh'

My kids requested gingerbread cookies this year. 

I don't cook. 

So I posted on facebook requesting an easy recipe. Some friends suggested buying the slice and bake cookies. Yes!!  

My Kroger sucks. 

No slice and bake. No packages. Nothing easy. 

So in the baking/sweets/spices/aisle where my kids go crazy section of Kroger, I googled 'easy gingerbread cookie recipe' and found one that didn't require molasses or ground up elf toes. 

I followed the instructions but it turned out to be a very weird texture, like kinetic sand. I assumed it was a fail but I stuck the dough in the fridge anyways. When it was time to use, I covered the kids' table in wax paper and flopped out my sand dough and laughed. I took the roller to it and laughed even more when the dough wadded up on the roller (yes I used flour on it) or stayed in sandy clumps on the wax paper. As I was trying to clean the roller I found that the dough actually felt a bit like play doh. I flopped a wad on the table and smashed it out with my hand, stuck a cookie cutter in it, and it worked! My kids LOVED it. It was like playing with play doh. They were able to squish it with their hands and cut out their shapes (angel, gingerbread person, snowman, neuschwanstein castle, the usual).

The cookies turned out great. So yummy!

Recipe:

Ingredients 

1 six oz package of butterscotch pudding mix (or 2 smaller boxes; that's all I could find, 3.75 oz boxes, I just didn't use entire package to keep it at 6 oz)

3/4 cup butter (about one and half sticks)

3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1 egg

2 & 1/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 & 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 

Instructions

1.  Cream pudding dry mix with butter and sugar, add egg, blend well. 

2.  Combine flour, baking soda, ginger, and cinnamon; blend into pudding/butter/egg mixture. 

3.  Chill dough for one hour in refrigerator or until firm. 

4.  Sprinkle table with floor or use wax paper to spread dough out on, pat out dough with hands, cut or form into shapes. 

5.  Bake at 350 degrees 10-12 minutes. 

6.  Cool and decorate. 

Enjoy!