Bake Gingerbread Letters

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and salt for 20 seconds. Then set it aside.

In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment to cream together the sugar and butter until well combined, occasionally stopping and scraping the sides of the bowl.

Mix in the egg yolk and vanilla.

Mix in the molasses and 1 Tbsp milk.

With the mixer set on low speed, slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix until combined, while adding additional milk as needed, just to bring dough together.

Divide the dough into two equal portions. Then roll each portion out between two sheets of parchment paper. They should be about 1/4-inch thickness. Chill on a cookie sheet in freezer for 10 minutes or until firm.

Then, cut the dough into letters) using cookie cutters – or hand-cut your own letter shapes. As you make letters, practice saying their name and their sound with your child.

Remove the formed letters from the paper (using a thin metal spatula or pastry scraper if needed) and transfer them to the cookie sheet. Leave about 1 inch in between cookies.

Bake for 8 minutes, or until slightly set (they should leave a slight indentation when touched). Repeat this process with any remaining cookies. Remove the cookies from the oven let them cool.

After the cookies have cooled, see if you can spell any words together!