Step 1

Preheat the oven to 375F

Step 2

Whisk the dry ingredients together to blend well.

Step 3

Cream the butter and sugar until well combined. (I do this in a stand mixer, but you can use hand held beaters.) Add the vanilla, molasses, and egg, and beat until nice and smooth.

Step 4

With the mixer on low, slowly add in the dry ingredients and beat until thoroughly incporporated. You can finish mixing by hand, and don't forget to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to get anything stuck there.

Step 5

Cover the dough surface with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Generally you want spritz dough to be firm enough to hold its shape but soft enough to stamp out easily. In this case the addition of molasses makes the dough extra sticky, so you may need some chilling time. You'll need to do a test cookie or two (or three!) before you get it right.

Step 6

Press your cookies onto cold, ungreased cookie sheets, following the instructions that came with your model. Space them close together since they don't rise or spread. Bake for 5-6 minutes (mine cooked in 5 minutes.) Let them cool on the pan for a couple of minutes before removing to a rack to cool completely. They'll be a little soft at first, but will firm up as they cool.

Step 7

Stir the glaze ingredients together until smooth and glossy. You may need to thin it slightly, so have some warm water handy.

Step 8

Dip each cookie, face down, into the glaze just until the whole surface makes contact, then lift straight up and let the excess glaze drip off before flipping over and setting back on the rack to dry. If the glaze seems too thick, stir in a very small amount of warm water, and if your glaze seems too thin, add a small amount of sifted powdered sugar.

Step 9

Let the icing fully dry before moving or stacking the cookies.