Put the paddle on your stand mixer, use a hand mixer, or simply use a good old bowl and wooden spoon. You need to cream the butter and brown sugar. If you do it in the stand mixer, you'll want to mix for about 5 minutes on a medium speed. It should be very creamy and light when it's ready. Scrape down the bowl.
Add in the vanilla extract and eggs. You're going to make this mixture light and creamy again. Scrape down the bowl.
Add in the molasses. Mix about 1 minute. Scrape down the bowl well, since the molasses is so sticky.
Add in the ginger, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, cream of tartar, and clove. I try to put this right in the middle of the bowl as to not let it blow up on the sides of the bowl. Mix on a low speed to prevent the dry ingredients from blowing around too much. Mix these dry ingredients in till well incorporated. Scrape down the bowl.
Adding flour to your cookies is an important step that CANNOT BE OVERMIXED. Overmixing is detrimental to cookies, as it makes them tough. Add the flour in 2 additions. Mix it until JUST incorporated. When you don't see flour streaks anymore, STOP mixing.
Lay down a large piece of plastic wrap on a 1/2 sheet pan (I know, I hate plastic, too, but it's the easiest way to do it without a mess). Flip your cookie dough out of the mixing bowl and onto the plastic wrap on the 1/2 sheet. Flatten it with your hands, lay another piece of plastic over top, and roll out with a rolling pin over the plastic. Make the dough about 1/2" thick. Put in the fridge for about an hour.
Preheat your oven to 350° when you have 15 minutes left on the fridge chill. Pull your dough out of the fridge at the 1 hour mark (or it can sit for several hours to days, of course). Roll your dough with the rolling pin to about 1/4" thick. Stamp out your cookies with your favorite cookie cutters or even just a circle biscuit cutter. We pressed some dye free sprinkles into our cookies gently at this point, but you can of course omit this step.
Lay the stamped cookies on a parchment lined 1/2 sheet. Bake for approximately 8-10 minutes. Ours took 8 mins, and they were slightly underdone as to finish on the sheet after pulling them from the oven. All of our cookies were "normal" cookie size at about 3" tall or so.
If you don't use all your dough, you can wrap it in plastic and put it in the fridge to use another day. If you don't use it after a few days, pop it in the freezer to use later! This is such a fun recipe to do with kids. Our kids love mixing, rolling, and stamping - and of course eating :)