I have a recipe very similar to the used here, but mine doesn't call for cornstarch. What does the cornstarch here do? We cook our gingerbread cookies with string loops on the tops, then frost and decorate them to hang on our Christmas tree. Many of the adults' cookies are quite artistic, but it is the children's that usually look the best, probably because of the piles of glitter and crystallized sugars they use to enhance the colored frosting... Ah, kids - the more the better, right? And with Christmas cookies, that's probably true! The cornstarch lowers the gluten in the flour a bit, promoting cookies that are a tad easier to roll out, and perhaps a tad more tender. PJH

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