What's your favorite gingerbread recipe?

We all know the classic cookie that seems to be everywhere around Christmas time. Recently I've been doing some holiday baking and have discovered that gingerbread is coming in all different shapes and sizes.

There's of course the usual holiday favorites, gingerbread people and their gingerbread homes. These sweet people have their usual frosting features and candy accessories while their houses are held up with candy canes and decorated with peppermint windows.

While there are the classics some people like to go all out with their creations. Around the holidays you can surely find a gingerbread house-building contest but in North Carolina, they have a National Gingerbread House competition.

Competitors always entertain designing new and different takes on the original and bringing them to life. And after the competition is over the finalists are put on display at the Grove Park Inn for guests to enjoy.

Along with new creations in the gingerbread house category, there have been plenty of additions to your classic cookie designs. You have your usual bells and snowflakes and the occasional reindeer but this year I've discovered my favorite shape yet. The gingerbread bigfoot, or sasquatch if you prefer.

These fun furry guys are a great fun shape that everyone enjoys. You can leave them with a basic outline design or give them some fun decorations like a little Santa hat or some presents for them to carry.

Now, getting back to the point, one treat that my family likes to enjoy around the holidays is something we call Ooey Gooey Ginger Chewies. These cookies are similar to the familiar ginger cookies or ginger snaps and make a great gift or care package to send to family and friends.

They have all the spice of your usual gingerbread with a center that might be a bit chewier than the original. They also have a crinkled look over the top after baking that gives them a lovely look.

Another new trend I've come across recently is a dessert that could be considered a cookie or a cake.

The Gingerbread Icebox cake recipe that I've seen floating around is a delicious confection created by taking gingerbread discs and layering them on top of each other and cementing them in place with thick frosting.

The frosting recipes range from whipped cream to marscarpone but each seems to be a great pairing for the cookies.

One important trick for this cake is to make sure that the discs are baked but not overcooked. If they are too tough it might be difficult to cut neatly through the cake.

Continuing with the cake theme there is another take on gingerbread that leans more toward your traditional cakey texture. Gingerbread cakes are a great way to get all those great spices together in a slice.

One great thing that I enjoy about gingerbread cakes is that they can give you a chance to experiment with some of the more natural or healthy ingredients.

Honey makes a great sweetener in gingerbread if you're looking for a lighter sweetness. There are even some recipes where you can substitute Greek yogurt for some of the liquids in the cake. This can help give it a more dense structure and add a moist texture.

These cakes can be perfect on their own but a little frosting never hurts. There are always the classic cream cheese and vanilla frostings but another flavor that I've found goes well with gingerbread is molasses buttercream.

I look forward to finding new and different ways to make gingerbread desserts and I hope that you've enjoyed reading about some of my experiences with it. Maybe you'll be inspired to make a creation of your own

Thanks for reading!!