Cream shortening and sugar. Add molasses and egg; beat thoroughly. Sift together remaining ingredients and add to liquid mixture. Mix well. If dough does not come together, add water as necessary. (Dough tends to be stiff.) Roll to 1 cm thick and cut pattern for desired structure. Bake at 180ºC or 15-18 minutes. Be very careful when removing from baking sheets to cooling rack. Let cool thoroughly, then assemble using Royal icing (2 egg whites, half tsp. cream of tartar, half to 1 tsp. vanilla, 1 lb. confectioners sugar. Beat until stiff.) A couple of things: Roll out the dough right on the cookie sheets, cut your pieces, and peel away the extra dough. A lot easier than trying to transfer the pieces from rolling board to sheets. Leave some space between pieces; this dough tends to spread a bit. It also has a tendency to crack a little when you take it off the baking sheet if you use a small spatula to move it. I went out and invested in one with a 5 inchx3 inch blade. The cookie isn't too sweet, but nice and spicy. I spent the whole day with my mom, helping her make cookies for Christmas gifts. Somewhere around 600 cookies later, I'm finally home.... Anyway, she gave me permission to divulge her gingerbread recipe, so here it is. * The Polka Dot Palace BBS 1-201-822-3627.