Gingerbread men are a traditional cookie that allows for plenty of individual style and expression. Have fun with faces and clothes.
Gingerbread cookies are usually soft, but stand up beautifully to hardening. If you want to use this dough to make ornaments, they will be sturdy for years to come. If you roll the dough thickly, you should serve it soft. If you make thin cookies, hardening them for a gingersnap type treat is totally acceptable and enjoyable.
Gingerbread Man Cookies
- ½ c butter
- ½ c sugar
- 1 egg
- approximately 2 c flour
- 1 t baking powder
- 1 ¼ t ginger
- ½ t baking soda
- ¾ t cinnamon
- ½ t cloves
- ½ c + 2 T molasses
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cream together butter and sugar in an electric stand mixer. Make sure that the mixture is smooth. Any unmixed butter will result in inconsistent gingerbread cookies later.
- Add molasses and egg to the butter mixture. Mix well.
- Add 1 cup of flour and remaining dry ingredients, mixing only until combined. Do not overbeat.
- Gradually add the remaining cup of flour to the dough as the mixer runs. When a stiff dough forms, stop adding flour. Plenty of flour is important to ensure a stiff dough, but even a little bit too much can leave you with crumbly, difficult to work with dough.
- Roll dough to 1/4 inch thick for soft gingerbread cookies. Roll to 1/8 inch thick for crispy cookies.
- Cut out desired shapes and place on a cookie sheet. Make sure to bake one shape at a time. Mixing sizes can lead to an uneven turnout.
- Bake for 6-8 minutes depending on cookie size and desired softness.
Frosting
- 1 c powdered sugar
- 1 T butter
- 1 t milk
- 1/2 t vanilla
- Cream together butter and sugar.
- Add vanilla.
- Add milk, stirring to combine.
- Add sugar for a thicker consistency. Add milk for a thinner consistency.
Tips
Gingerbread cookies can pose some baking difficulties, so here are some helpful hints for making the best gingerbread cookies.
- Once you have added flour to your cookie dough, be very careful not to overmix it. Stir only as much is necessary in order to combine ingredients.
- If your dough ends up being too dry, add a little bit of milk. As you are rolling the dough, use a pastry brush to cover cracks with the moisture. Continue rolling.
- If you roll dough in more than one stage, save all scraps until the end. If you continually re-roll scraps, the effect will be the same as that of overmixing. Cookies will be tough and heavy. If you roll all of the scraps together at the end, they will only be rolled twice, and maybe three times.
- Wait until they are completely cool until you frost the gingerbread cookies. Warm cookies will cause the frosting to melt and look messy.
- Allow gingerbread cookie frosting to set for four hours before stacking the cookies.
The copyright of the article Adorable Gingerbread Men in Winter Recipes is owned by Mary Hudlemeyer. Permission to republish Adorable Gingerbread Men must be granted by the author in writing.
