How to Make Gingerbread Man Cookies for the Holidays

With the holidays approaching we can't help but get excited about baking fun treats for our family and friends. Have your family members help you out in the kitchen as this will be a fun project for the kids as well. These cookies aren't crispy like traditional gingerbread cookies. They hold up well but they are soft. Well? Make these fun treats for the upcoming holidays and add better meaning to any dainty celebration!

Quick Notes: Whatever you do, don't over bake these guys - they will dry right out. If anything under bake them just a shade (they will continue to bake for another couple of minutes once you pull them from the oven). Big cookies take longer to cook than tiny ones, keep that in mind as well.

People often like to use bright white royal icing to decorate gingerbread cookies. It doesn't smear once it sets, and it can bind the seams of a gingerbread house like concrete. Many recipes for royal icing call for raw egg whites - this make a lot of people including myself nervous and unfortunately pasteurized egg whites don't whip up the way pasteurized egg whites do. Another option is to use meringue powder, a powdery blend made of dried egg whites and other ingredients (gums?)...

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 cups white whole wheat flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
• 11 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2/3 cup dark natural cane sugar (i.e. muscavado), or alternately use a dark brown sugar, packed
• 3 large eggs
• 2/3 cup organic unsulphured molasses (blackstrap)
• large grain sugar (turbinado) for decoration
• popsicle sticks (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Grab your measuring spoon and measure all your ingredients correctly.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl by hand (or with an electric mixer) cream the butter until it is light and fluffy. Add the sugar and mix again until light and creamy. Blend in the eggs one at a time and then the molasses. Add the flour mixture in two additions either by hand or on low speed. Divide the dough into two pieces, wrap each in plastic and chill for an hour or so.
4. Heat oven to 350 degrees, racks in the middle, and line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpats. Set aside.
5. Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured countertop roughly 1/8-inch thick and cut into gingerbread men (or other desired shapes). Transfer to baking sheets and arrange a popsicle stick underneath each (if desired), no need to press the stick aggressively into the dough, gently is fine - the cookies will bake right onto the sticks. 
6. Sprinkle with sugar (optional) and bake for 7 -10 minutes (for 3 - 4-inch cookies), less for smaller cookies, more for larger.

SERVING: Makes about 3 dozen four-inch gingerbread men.

Enjoy!