The Making of Christmas Gingerbread Men

When I was taking the Children Literature class, I am always fascinated by the story of Gingerbread Men, even though the story has a tragic end but it's always fun to read, especially for young children.

Since then, I always think of the making of gingerbread men cookies a Christmas tradition. And I read it somewhere that in UK, gingerbread men are traditionally given to single ladies in hope that they will find decent men to marry in the coming year.

This Christmas, I have decided to give the gingerbread cookies a try and the next chore is to choose the recipe that is simple and yields the best results. So I have started browsing for recipes from various sites and cookbooks, and the ingredients they have in common are molasses and mixture of spice such as ground ginger, cinnamon, allspice and clove, one recipe's spice ratio varies from another, and everyone's spice tolerance/acceptance differ.

So, I have decided to combine a few recipe from Martha, Epicurious and my collection of cookbooks to make the gingy.

Essential tools for making these cookies--cookie cutter, baking trays, rolling pin and etc.

Oh, before I forget, before you make these cookies, be sure to have a few essential tools such as baking tray, rolling pin and gingy cooking cutter. I have to warn you that you need quite a bit of patience with this recipe because it can be time-consuming because the rolling of the dough and cutting the cookies into shape you desire.


So, without further a do, here's the recipe, enjoy making, baking and eating them!

Gingerbreadmen Cookies
(makes 20 - 30 cookies, depends on your cutter size)

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ cup or 125 g unsalted butter
• ½ cup loose brown sugar
• 3 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoons ground cloves
• ½ teaspoon finely ground pepper
• ½ teaspoons coarse salt
• 1 large egg
• ¼ cup unsulfured molasses, widely available at organic stores

Directions

1. Sift all the dry ingredients such as flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl, set aside.

2. Cream butter and brown sugar in the bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy, about 5 – 8 minutes. With a lower speed, mix in spices and salt, then eggs and molasses. Add flour mixture in 4 batches and mix until just combined. Tip: The dough consistency should be of dry play-dough but still plyable.

3. Divide dough into halves, flatten like a disc and wrap each in plastic, refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour or overnight to 3 nights (in a container).

4. Preheat oven to 180°C, roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to about ½ cm thick. Cut into cookies with a floured gingerbread men-shape cookie cutter. Space 2 inches apart on baking trays lined with parchment paper.

5. Bake cookies until golden, 10 to 12 minutes (if you like chewy cookies), 12 – 15 minutes (if you like crispy cookies).

6. Let cool on sheets on wire racks before piping the icing.

7. Pipe your favorite icing, royal icing preferrably. Let icing set completely at room temperature, about 1 hour. Tip: For lazy people like myself, I used readymade white decoration frosting (but it doesn’t dry as well as royal icing)

Everybody loves piping frosting onto the cookies.

All cookies piped, dried and ready to be sent for Christmas gifts.