Gingerbread Men

 Run run run as fast as you can you can’t catch me I’m the Gingerbread Man! I have had this running through my brain today. So this week I made what is probably my most popular cookie I make. I get asked all the time about my gingerbread men. I’ve shared the recipe with lots of people. Several have told me that theirs do not come out like mine so I am going to go in great detail how I make them. Maybe this will help you be successful in making these cookies.  So this will be a longer than usual post so please bear with me.

I’ll explain more later about the different sizes of the cookies.

Day 1

It is a two day process to make these cookies. Don’t let that scare you. So on the first day you are going to mix up your dough. I usually make more than one recipe so I have developed an assembly line process.

The first thing I do is mix up my spices in a little dish. I measure out all I need for ever how many recipes I am doing before I get started mixing. This is the spices for one recipe. 

Start with 2 teaspoons of baking soda.

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cardamom 

1/2 teaspoon cloves

The spices smell so good. Set them aside for a few minutes.

Now I’m going to get my molasses ready. If you need to measure any sticky substance if you spray the measuring cup with Pam it will slide right out. 

You will need 3 Tablespoons. Set aside too.

Measure 2 Tablespoons of water. Set that aside. You will have most of your ingredients prepped and you can just dump and mix.

1 1/2 cups sugar

Put 2 sticks softened butter in your mixer bowl with the sugar and mix until fluffy.

1 egg added to the bowl.

Add the molasses

Add the water and mix well.

Add the spices from the small bowl and mix.

Last thing to add is 3 1/4 cups plain flour. You will add just a little at a time. You don’t want flour all over the kitchen.

Scrap down the sides. Now you want some plastic wrap to wrap up this batch for the fridge. I use press and seal.

This batch is wrapped and ready for the fridge. It is soft. I leave mine overnight. You can leave it in the fridge for probably 2 or maybe 3 days before you roll it out but I would t any longer than that.  When you have your ingredients ready to go it doesn’t take long to mix it up.  So get a good nights sleep because the work starts tomorrow.

Day 2.

Find a good Christmas movie to watch while you are rolling out the cookies. It will make the time go fast and you don’t have to really pay a lot of attention to the movie.

This is what I need for the day. You will need a little flour to dust you countertops to keep it from sticking.  If you are going to freeze the cookies you will need a container and parchment paper. I have used wax paper and they tend to stick to it. Parchment is best.

Last night I cut out some parchment to fit my container. I put one on bottom and then one between each layer and then on top before I close the container.

I like these Rubbermaid containers. They are sturdy and hold a lot.

I use to make all kinds of shaped cookies. I did footballs, bears, moose heads trees, you name it. Then I decided I just wanted gingerbread men. I did all sizes of those too but it was hard to layer them and if I wanted a big one for Santa I had to hunt for it. So I do basically one size and then some small bite size cookies. The yellow cutters I found yesterday and thought the baby one was so cute. So I’m going to make some of those. The smaller cutters are great for the scraps.

Unwrap one batch. Keep the rest in the freezer.

Using the scraper cut the dough in half. To make it easier to work with.

Then cut each half in half so you have four pieces.

We are going to work with just one piece at a time. It makes it much more manageable. Set the others aside for right now.

Sprinkle some flour on the counter. You will do this a lot today.

Put the piece in the middle and sprinkle some flour on top.

Knead the piece until you can work it into a ball.

Bring over your rolling pin and using your hand rub a little flour on the pin.

Now roll the dough out into a uniform thickness. Or as much as you can.

Pick your cutter.

It’s okay if it sticks to the cutter. Use your finger and gently push it out.

I look on the back to see if there is a lot of flour and if there is I brush it off with my finger.

There’s some areas you can use the smaller cutters.

One small one.

Another small one.

Gather this all up and roll into a ball and roll out again.

The left overs. Add more flour to the counter.

Roll it back out.

Keep on until you have used up all the dough. Place them on the parchment in the container. 

Put parchment on top and keep going.

Ready for the freezer.

And because I like to keep it real. Here is the mess. I had flour all over the flour, counter, my shirt. The remote, my phone, and my cup. But oh it is worth it. By the way I watched two movies while I rolled these out.

Another use for the scraper, it helps clean off the counter.

My sample cookies. I want to test the new small ones. I hope they don’t run together and become a blob. Place in a preheated 350 oven and bake for about 8 minutes.

They smell so good. Leave them on the cookie sheet for a few minutes. I usually pull the parchment off the tray and let them cool completely.

They turned out perfect. I hope you have much success with your cookies because they are so good. I have it on good authority that Santa likes them too.

Gingerbread Men recipe

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 sticks softened butter

3 Tablespoons molasses

1 egg

2 Tablespoons water

3 1/4 cups plain flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cardamom 

1/2 teaspoon cloves.