One of our Christmas traditions, making gingerbread men.  Last year, my boys had fun placing soldier men in the dough. This year they really got into the whole process.  My little guy who just turned 3 was really into making the perfect shaped gingerbread man.  It was really cute.

I really like this version of Gingerbread cookies because they still have that ginger flavor but are they are not hard, but of course if you leave them in the oven too long they will get hard.

It’s similar to the recipe I’ve posted here a few years ago but with a few tweaks.

Soft Gingerbread Cookies

makes 12 small-med. gingerbread men & 15-20 medium sized gingersnaps

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup soft butter
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2-3 tablespoons molasses
• 3 cups flour
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Cream room temperature butter and add brown sugar. Continue to beat until fluffy.

Add egg, vanilla and molasses. Note, that molasses depending on the brand and type it can be very strong.  So if you’re not sure start off with 1.5 tablespoons and add more as desired if you make them again. I buy mine from the health food store and it’s very strong.

Then add in flour, baking powder, all the spices, and salt.

Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

For round gingersnaps: Makes about 15 medium size gingersnaps

Roll the dough into small balls and dip the tops into sugar. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with butter. Place balls of dough at least 3 inches apart on prepared baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10 min or until firm.

For gingerbread men cookies:

1. Roll out your dough on a lightly floured surface.  Using your cookie cutters make your shapes and space them out on the cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 10 min or until firm.  The longer you leave them in the harder they will get.

Let them cool before icing.

Note:  They will harden if you leave them in then oven for too long, believe me I’ve made that mistake.

Also, you have to refrigerate the dough as mentioned above in order to use cookie cutters with them.

Icing Recipe

3 tbl Corn syrup

3/4 cps Powdered sugar

1 tbl milk

1. Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl.  Add more powdered sugar if you need it to be stiffer.  I made mine pretty stiff.