Gingerbread Men

Family Circle, November 29, 2009
Gingerbread Men
Seems like I try a new gingerbread man recipe every year.  It’s not at all that I’m unhappy with the recipes I’ve baked in the past, it’s more about wishing to find a cookie that is perhaps a new and unique version.  This recipe is one that falls into the realm of easy-to-make and easy-to-work-with.  There isn’t anything out of the ordinary about it, but what it has going for itself is that it’s easy to roll, easy to re-roll and easy to cut.  That’s the sort of thing you should be looking for in a Gingerbread Man recipe.  While the gingerbread itself is most always a delicious, gingery treat, the decor added to it is the more appealing part of this type of cookie.
Gingerbread Men
Source:  Family Circle, November 29, 2009

ingredients:
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup original molasses
royal icing
red hot cinnamon candies

instructions:
1.  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt.  Set aside.
2.  In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until smooth.  Beat in egg, then molasses.  Stir flour mixture into butter mixture.  Divide dough into 2 halves.  Wrap; chill 2 hours.
3.  Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  On a well-floured surface, roll half of dough to 1/8-inch thickness.  Cut shapes with assorted-sized gingerbread cookie cutters; transfer to ungreased baking sheets.  Reroll scraps; cut.  Repeat with the rest of the dough.
4.  Bake at 350 degrees F. for 13 minutes.  Transfer cookies to racks to cool.  Decorate with Royal Icing and cinnamon candies.

Yield: 2 1/2 dozen assorted-size cookies

Notes from Culinary Covers:
*This cookie dough was easy to mix, roll, cut and re-roll.
*I made three different sizes of “men,” ending up with 8 large, 23 medium-sized, and 14 mini gingerbread men.
*For the royal icing, I used my go-to recipe:  Martha Stewart’s Royal Icing.
*If you wish to decorate the men as pictured, you’ve got to have a bit of a steady hand.  Scoop the icing into a pastry bag (or zip bag) and use a small round tip.  Pipe carefully, all the way around the edges.  Pipe three little smudges in the middle & drop the cinnamon candies on top.  My 8 year old enjoyed being the “button-fastener” for me.  Little hands can drop those little candies onto the cookies much easier than large ones!
*Let these sit at room temperature until the icing has hardened (overnight is good). 
*These freeze just fine- layer them between sheets of waxed paper and store in airtight container.

Did this recipe deserve the cover?  Yes.  It’s a festive holiday cookie for sure, easy to make, and perfectly “Family” friendly for this family magazine.  Simply decorated, I thought they looked cute on my cookie platter.  They happened to be delicious too.

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