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1
Cream the butter and sugar together until whipped soft and pale, then beat in the egg, followed by the ginger (or vanilla), flour, baking powder and salt and continue mixing until it all comes together to make a soft dough.
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2
Form into two discs, wrap each one in plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator 20 to 30 minutes.
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3
Preheat the oven to 350u00b0F and line a cookie sheet or two with parchment paper.
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4
Cut into shapes, dipping the cutter into flour as you go, and place the first cookies a little apart on the lined cookie sheet/s. Keep the scraps of the first disc, to mix with the scraps of the second and roll and cut, reroll and cut, until you've used up the mixture. This is a wonderfully pliable dough, which makes it an unstressful joy to work with.
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5
Bake in the oven 8 to 12 minutes: this depends on their shape, how many sheets are in the oven at the same time, and whether on the upper or lower shelf, though you can swap them around after about 5 minutes. When they're ready, expect them to be tinged a pronounced pale gold around the edges; they'll be softish still in the middle, but will harden on cooling.
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6
Take the sheets out of the oven, remove the cookies, with a flat, preferably flexible spatula, to a wire rack and let cool.
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7
Using a small (unused) paintbrush or eyeshadow brush, dip in the edible gold dust or glitter flakes, and give each cookie its gilded coating.
