Gingerbread Men

     I love the gingerbread men because you can do such cute things with them! We had a great time getting creative!  Make sure to plan ahead.  After making the dough it needs to chill in the freezer for an hour.  Once it is cold everything goes quickly and you can start cookie cutting, baking, and icing.  This is a fairly spicy gingerbread, which was good for adults.  If you want it more mild I would cut the cloves and ginger in half.  This is another recipe from allrecipes.com with a few modifications.

Gingerbread Cookie Dough
 Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

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Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Stir in molasses and egg yolk.
2. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg.  Blend all the dry ingredients into the molasses mixture until smooth.
3. Wrap half the dough in parchment paper and put it in the freezer.  Do the same with the other half.  This will allow you to work with one, while the other remains cold.  Chill for at least one hour.  The dough needs to be very cold to work well.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
5. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until firm. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks.
6.  When the cookies are completely cool you can frost them.  I used a recipe for royal icing, however it was a compelte failure and I just had to keep adding melted butter until I got it the right consistancy.  So, until aI find a better recipe I can't offer one up.
7. Have fun!!

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