The secret to perfect gingerbread that is not too mushy or too crunchy? Start with a good recipe (I used the one from Real Simple’s website). Turn your oven down a bit from what it calls for (since mine is convection I set it to 320). Roll out your refrigerate dough and cut the shapes. Place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and then pop the whole sheet in the freezer for five minutes before baking. Bake cookies for 9 minutes. Voila! Perfect!

I iced them with a simple powdered sugar-vanilla-milk glaze.

Jacob helped by taking out baking supplies and banging them on the tile.