Rebecca Rather, owner of the Rather Sweet Bakery & Café in Texas Hill Country, has a holiday gingerbread cookie recipe for making gingerbread-people ornaments from this spiced dough by pricking a hole in the top of each cookie with a chopstick before baking.

1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup full-flavored molasses
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 cup unsalted butter
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

1. In a large saucepan, stir together granulated sugar, molasses, water, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Remove the pan from the heat and add the butter, stirring occasionally until melted. Let cool 15 minutes.

2. In a large bowl stir together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the mixture in the saucepan. Mix with a wooden spoon until completely combined. Spoon the dough into a gallon-size resealable plastic bag. Flatten the dough to an even thickness and seal. Refrigerate 6 hours to overnight.

3. Remove dough from bag; divide into 4 portions. Roll out 1 portion at a time, storing remainder of the dough in refrigerator while you work. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the chilled dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut out the cookies with 4- to 6-inch gingerbread-people cookie cutters. Use a spatula to move the cookies onto ungreased cookie sheets, spacing them 1 inch apart. Combine the dough scraps and reroll the dough to cut out more cookies. Roll any subsequent scraps into a thick log, wrap it in plastic wrap, and freeze for 10 minutes or until firm. Use a sharp knife to cut 1/4-inch-thick rounds off the log to make round cookies. (Reroll the scraps only once, or the cookies will become tough from overhandling.)

4. Bake cookies in a 375° oven 10 to 12 minutes or until firm. Cool cookies on cookie sheets 5 minutes before transferring to racks to cool.

5. Decorate the cooled gingerbread cookies as desired. Makes about 20 cookies.

Recipe reprinted from The Pastry Queen: Royally Good Recipes from the Texas Hill Country's Rather Sweet Bakery & Cafe by Rebecca Rather, published by Ten Speed Press.