You know, nuthin’ says Christmas like the wonderful smell of Gingerbread Men baking’ in the oven! With that in mind, here’s my favorite recipe!
Gingerbread Men - It's Christmas!
Recipe by: Bobbi Jo Lathan
Recipe type: Holiday Dessert
Cuisine: Traditional
Serves: 12
PREP TIME
10 mins
COOK TIME
8 mins
TOTAL TIME
18 mins
INGREDIENTS
1â…“ sticks of butter (softened)
½ cup light brown sugar (packed)
½ cup molasses (unsulfured)
3 ¼ cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon evaporated milk (some folks add a beaten egg, but I like the milk)
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat your oven to 350°.
Grease your big cookie sheet with some butter or vegetable or olive oil.
In a big bowl, beat the softened butter and the brown sugar’ till light and fluffy.
Now, mix in the molasses until it’s all blended. (my mouth’s waterin’ as I LUV molasses).
Add in the cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and salt.
Add in the flour, a little at a time, and the baking soda and mix well.
When it gets too stiff to work with, add the evaporated milk. If it’s still too hard to work with (you do want it to be stiff, just not crumbly) add a bit more milk. Now you should have a big ol’ round ball of brown dough.
Flour your work surface because you’re gonna roll out your gingerbread dough.
Place your dough mixture on the floured surface and pat it down a bit.
Git your rollin’ pin and roll out the dough to about ½ inch or a little more thickness.
Now that the dough is flattened, use whatever cookie cutter shapes you want  (men, snowflakes, Christmas trees) and cut out the shapes and place on greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 350° for about 7-8 minutes. They should spring back when you touch ‘em. They’ll puff up a bit, which I like because I like my gingerbread men big and chubby.
Put them on a rack to cool and then ice ‘em however you like! You’re the creative cookie decorator! Have fun!
NOTES
For icing, just get a bowl, add some softened butter, powdered sugar and a tiny bit of evaporated milk until you get a nice stiff, cream-colored consistency. Separate your icing into separate little bowls and add different food colorings to each bowl. Now, decorate your cookies. (You can also use red hots for eyes!)