Soft & Chewy Gingerbread Cookies (sweetened only with dates & love)

As promised in my last post about date paste, here's the first holiday date-sweetened recipe! I made these yesterday. Oh man, I love gingerbread, especially SOFT gingerbread. The two keys to making these nice and soft are to: 1. Roll it out thick! and 2. Don't overbake!

 RECIPE

3 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 T cinnamon
1T ground ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
12 T butter (room temp, but not warm) cut into small chunks
3/4 cup date paste (or approx 1 cup of dates cooked down in 1 cup water and pureed)
         check out all about date paste for tips!
3/4 cup molasses

I like to use a food processor, but a mixer is great too.

Mix dry ingredients.
Add the butter and mix until mixture is "sandy."
With the mixer on low, slowly add the molasses and date paste until the dough is evenly combined.
Scrape the dough out onto parchment paper.
Divide into 2 balls, wrap in plastic and chill. An hour in the fridge or speed it up in the freezer.
Roll out between 2 pieces of parchment. Roll out thick, about 1/4 inch.
Cut out shapes and place on a parchment covered cookie sheet. Add any decorations at this point. Pop in the freezer for about 5 min.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-13 min. Don't over bake 'em! They'll firm up on the pan outside the oven.
Cool for several minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to wire rack.

P.S. If you don't feel like rolling out the dough, just shape into little round balls and flatten slightly.

If you try it, let me know how it goes! Also if you have good sugar-free decorating ideas besides raisins, let's hear 'em!

Happy baking.

Carrie