Gingerbread Men

Oh my gosh! I get the most interesting ideas during the holiday season so every once in awhile I do follow through on them. I have 2 gingerbread men cookie cutters. One is 4 - inches tall and the other about 1½- tall. You will note I said I have these cookie cutters not that I use them. Well I do use cookie cutters but I find rolled cookies tedious so they don't get a lot of use. I decided the grandbabies needed gingerbread men for the holidays.

Gingerbread Men

I have made a lot of cookies over my lifetime. The dough for these gingerbead cookies has seriously been the most tedious dough I have ever worked with! Not only was it tedious to work with it was tedious even as the cookies cooled. Although the instructions said to remove the cookies from the cookie sheet immediately I found doing it this way resulting in cookies breaking. Once the cookies are cooled they are not quite so delicate.

Pictured are the larger gingerbread men. I made the smaller ones as well. Don't laugh at my decorating skills. Apparently I need to work on that! They are quite tasty and went over well at last night's event. Despite the dough being so difficult to work with this is the dough I will be using for making a traditional gingerbread house. I'm working on its design now so watch for that coming soon. Every grandchild needs to experience the joy of tearing apart Grandma's gingerbread house!

Gingerbread Men
source: Betty Crocker's Cookbook (circa 1970's), Pp. 155.

½ c shortening
½ c granulated sugar
½ c dark molasses
¼ c water
2½ c unbleached flour
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp powdered ginger
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp alspice
decorating icing

Cream together shortening and sugar in bowl of stand mixer. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Cover and chill 2 to 3 hours. Heat oven to 180C conv/190ºC (350ºF conv/375ºF reg). Roll dough ¼- inch thick. Cut with gingerbread men cookie cutters. Place on Silpat® or ungreased baking sheat. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before removing from baking sheet. Cool then trim with decorating icing.