Gingerbread Star Cookie Tree

Gingerbread Cookie Stars

Whisk together flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, cloves, nutmeg and salt until combined. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy (approximately 2 minutes). Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed.

Add egg, molasses and vanilla and beat on high until combined (approximately 2 minutes).

Incorporate dry ingredients with wet, mixing on low until combined. Note: dough will be sticky.

Divide dough in half, cover each with plastic wrap then use your hands to flatten dough into disks. Refrigerate for three hours or overnight. (Overnight is preferred).

After dough has chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment and set aside.

Remove one dough disk from the refrigerator and roll out to 1/4 inch thickness on a floured work surface. Cut into stars with graduated-size cookie cutters. I used the star-shaped Twinkle Tree 10-Piece Cookie Cutter set from Sur La Table.

Place cookies on prepared cookie sheets 1 inch apart and bake for 8 minutes. Note: larger cookies may need an additional minute of bake time.

Cool cookies for 5 minutes on baking sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat process for second dough disk.

Assembly

Stack gingerbread stars on a flat surface, largest to smallest, placing raspberry jam in between each layer for stability. Dust tree with powdered sugar.

Store cookie trees at room temperature up to 2 days.