These are great! I used butter instead of margarine. I added an extra 1/4 cup of flour. I chilled the dough for 15 minutes and between batches. The dough was a bit sticky so I used powdered sugar much the same way you use flour when rolling out pie dough. I rolled the dough out on parchment paper, used the cookie cutters to cut the shapes, and removed the un-used dough from around the cookies. I slid the parchment paper with the cookies onto an airbake cookie sheet and baked them for 9 minutes. Let the cookies cool COMPLETELY before removing them from the parchment! They didn't spread much so it's OK to cut them as close as a 1/2 inch. I piped royal icing onto the snowflakes. This icing looks nice but it took 2 days to dry completely hard...until then it was sticky, so cookie storage was difficult. I also frosted some using the Sugar Cookie Icing from allrecipes.com and the cookies that I "flooded" the frosting on became VERY soft and broke VERY easy. (I'm assuming because of the added moisture that the icing gives the cookies.) If I decorate the cookies this way in the future, I will bake them longer so they are stonger. These cookies have a great flavor!

These cookies are excellent! I decreased the cloves to 1/2 teaspoon and put 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. I also added a little bit of pumpkin pie spice. My 4 year old daughter couldn't stop eating them! Great Flavor!

Use butter! Cloves were too much for me so i use less. I've made these cookies a half dozen times. They're chewy and soooo good. The dough is really sticky to rollout and cut so I put it between two sheets of plastic or parchment, roll it, freeze it for a few minutes then cut it. It's less messy this way too.

gingerbread cookies were okay. it was a little too oily for me, and it wasnt really spicy. they were just mediocre. i like my gingerbread cookies softer and more cakelike. maybe next time ill put less butter and add an egg

Holy cow these are PACKED with flavor. They are delightful! I used butter and brown sugar in the dough and they came out awesome. Fun to decorate but great all by themselves too.

Very yummy but it took many tries to get this very delicate mix shaped and on the tray. Extremely finicky but worth it

Very good recipe. I used this to make a gingerbread house. The flavor was outstanding. I will always use this recipe when I want to make gingerbread.

Great flavor. Bottom of cookies will burn before top so don't bake too long. Make 2 batches next Christmas!

Great flavor, texture and easy to work with.

We really liked the end result of this recipe but, as previous reviewers have noted, it doesn't make a lot of dough, given the effort that goes into it. I would try and make double next time but suspect the stand mixer would struggle with that much very stiff dough.

I made this recipe for a Christmas dinner party. The gingerbread people served as place cards with everyone's name on them. Big hit! ...and incredibly tasty, just the right amount of spice! I actually made it and then left it in the fridge over night it made rolling it out the next day soooo much easier!

Delicious! Family just raved about them. Did add a little more flour until I had the right consistancy. Perfect for decorating...the nieces had a blast!

This recipe barely misses a 5 star rating for one reason only. The cookies are not "spicy" as the title promises. They have a pleasant, mildly spiced flavor, but this recipe lacks the "bite" usually associated with genuinely spicy gingerbread. For those, however, who have palates that appreciate milder spices, this recipe is perfect. The dough was very easy to work with, when thoroughly chilled. I made it before going to bed, then rolled them out the next morning, taking only what could be rolled and cut at one time out of the fridge. The dough is, like any recipe made with a large quantity of any syrupy substance (i.e. molasses, corn syrup, honey,) sticky if not adequately chilled. Sticky dough is impossible to work with. The temptation is to add more flour to the dough, but resist it! More flour toughens your product. In fact, when rolling, it is always advisable to use a pastry cloth on your board and pastry sock on your rolling pin. This enables you to incorporate the least amount of flour possible, yet still work easily with the dough. Another good quality is that these don't puff up and lose their shape when baked. In fact, there is little rise to the cookies, so that what you see when on the sheet before baking is just about what you get. They're good keepers. They were still soft a week after baking (kept in an airtight tin.) Excellent recipe, but some tinkering with the spices could improve it.

Eh, I've had better. I'm sure there's a better recipe on this site. Thanks, but I'll keep looking.

Amazing! A new Christmas tradition!

I have tried this recipe a few times. I even got ambitious and made a gingerbread house out of it. I had the same flour problem. I entered them in our local 4-H days and they got a red. Judges said they were too spicy?!? Hello!They did not even read the recipe?!?! However, this is my favorite gingerbread recipe.

These turned out great for me. I followed the recipe exactly but will use 1/2 wholewheat flour next time. I thought they were really spicy and will not include as much cloves next time. They shaped well and didn't crumble for me and after decorating the gingerbread men, they didn't last long enough to see Christmas. I'll definitely save this recipe and make them again.