Gingerbread Men. A family tradition.
One of the Christmas traditions, for as long as I can remember is the one of decorating gingerbread men with my Grandma, sister and cousins. Even now with my kids pretty much grown, (ages 25, 22, 19 and 16), they still look forward to decorating each year with their cousins.
Even without adding icing these cookies are spicy and delicious.
If you would like a little sweeter and a touch less spicy, swap the blackstrap molasses for cooking and half the spices, (except the ginger, keep that amount the same).
I hope you enjoy this recipe!! They make really fun gifts for neighbors and friends.
Grandma Violet's Gingerbread Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar; beat in molasses and egg.
- In a separate bowl, stir together flour, ginger, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves; gradually beat into butter mixture.
- Shape into a ball, cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.
- Set your oven to 350 degrees.
- On a lightly floured surface (use as little flour as possible to avoid white streaks on your cookies), roll our dough to less than 1/4 inch (5 mm) thickness.
- Cut with cookie cutters into gingerbread men or Christmas shapes.
- Transfer (I use a very thin, lightly floured spatula) to a lightly greased baking sheet, (or you can cover your pan with parchment paper).
- If you are planning to hang a few in your tree, be sure to add a hole in the top with a straw.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, depending on how your oven cooks.
- Let cool slightly and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
- Mix the icing sugar and water together for desired consistency. You want it so that it is easy to spread, but is not too runny. Add a little vanilla if you wish and then add the food colouring.
Notes
***I always use the blackstrap molasses because our family loves the darker, richer gingerbread cookies. Blackstrap molasses is a more intense version of cooking molasses. It's darker, thicker, and has a much stronger, almost bitter flavor. Cooking molasses is much sweeter.
