Hello,
I've never baked with gingerbread dough before, but thought I'd give it a try this week. I used Julia's recipe (https://www.juliausher.com/blo...t_cookie_gingerbread) and weighed all my ingredients. I followed Julia's video, and my dough looked the same before refrigeration. After refrigeration my dough is really dry. It cracks quite a bit when I roll it. I have to knead it a bit to warm it up, and then it stops cracking. But I think warming it up encourages it to puff and spread more, which prevents nice contouring of my imprints. I also noticed that when working with leftover dough pieces, it is very difficult to form them into a smooth shape again. The leftover dough is very flaky and I need to press it in place quite a bit before it starts to behave. Overall, this is just not what I am used to, and am wondering if this is expected from gingerbread dough. It is possible that it dried out in the fridge because I wrapped it only in plastic, and not in foil, but this much drying seems odd? I also live in a very dry climate.
For reference, I am accustomed to working with a sugar cookie dough that contains butter and cream cheese.