Gingerbread Man Cookies

The excitement of Christmas has started to build and that can only mean one thing: ‘Tis the season for gingerbread!

The Recipe Intro↓ has more information on the history of the cookies as well as the Recipe Video. Don’t forget to check it out.

Makes 12- 16 gingerbread men(depending on size of cutter).

You can strike through ingredients, as you prep them, by clicking on the ingredient.

For the Gingerbread Men:

For Royal Icing:

Method:

For Gingerbread Men

1. Sift the dry ingredients ( flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and salt) together into a bowl.
2. In a saucepan or microwave, heat the butter, sugar and syrup gently till melted. Whisk till evenly mixed.
3. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the melted ingredients and the milk.
4. Mix well and knead lightly. Add enough of the extra flour till you can knead properly. (I use about 1/2 cup extra flour).
5. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. It should be chilled enough but not so stiff that you can not roll it out. I often chill overnight and then bring th temperature back up by removing from the fridge a while before rolling.
6. Remove from fridge and place the flattened disk of dough between two sheets of parchment.
7. Preheat oven 160º c/ 325º F .
8. Roll out the chilled but pliable dough into 1/4 inch thickness.
9. Using Gingerbread cutters OR shaped and festive cookie cutters, cut out the cookies.
10. Roll out the remaining scrap dough together and cut again, till it all used up.
11. Place on a baking tray lined with cookie sheet/wax paper.
12. Bake at 160º c/ 325º F for 12-15 minutes.  This may vary according to the type of oven and heat source. The cookies should develop a very slight brown border and puff up. Do not bake too long or they will acquire a burnt taste very quickly. See notes.
13. Remove tray from the oven. Leave cookies in baking tray on the countertop for 10 minutes.
14. Transfer to a wire rack to cool off completely. The cookies harden only once out of the oven. See notes.

For Royal Icing:

1. Using a stand mixer, beat the egg whites with the juice or extract until frothy.(If using meringue powder, skip this step and simply add the meringue powder to the icing sugar and add water/juice and extract- as seen in the video).
2. Reduce speed to low and add powdered sugar.
3. Beat till smooth and shiny.
4. Increase speed to high and continue to beat for 5 minutes till stiff and glossy.
5. Divide and stir in colouring as needed. Transfer into plastic/ cloth piping bags to pipe onto the cooled cookies.

Gingerbread Man Cookies

Notes:

• This dough makes softer egless gingerbread men. If you would like firmer ginger bread men try my dough recipe for gingerbread house. It uses egg and molasses sugar.
• The dough: If it’s too wet it won’t roll out nicely and it’ll spread during baking. If it’s too dry it’ll crumble while you’re rolling it out and crack during baking. This is why I add 1 cup flour first and mix ingredients and then add flour a bit at a time till it just holds together.
• Before you even begin, make sure everything is at room temperature including the eggs and butter,” she says. Do not over-knead it. Just as the mixture comes together, stop kneading and let it rest. Preferably, put the mixture in the fridge overnight and when you’re ready to cook rest it for 10 minutes on the countertop. Again, don’t overwork it or let it get too warm.”
• Also once you roll out the dough, you can stick it back in the fridge for 10 minutes or more before cutting. That will give the dough time to relax and firm up which prevents shrinkage and allows a clean-cut. Resting the dough is important!
• Do not overbake! Once the edges are just lightly brown remove the tray from the oven. If you touch the biscuits in the oven they would be very soft allowing you to think they’re not cooked. The cookies only harden when they are out of the oven so don’t remove them from the tray for five to ten minutes  –then cool on a wire rack after that.”
• Mix up the spice! Common spices used in gingerbread are ginger, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Mace or nutmeg are also sometimes added. In my recipe I use equal amounts of ginger and cinnamon, You can increase the proportion of ginger: cinnamon if you want the ginger spice to be more prominent. Taste the dough as you go to get the spice mix to your liking.
• Icing notes! Practice makes perfect  – practice piping on baking paper first is always a good idea. For flooding the cookies you want a runny icing, but for intricate details, thick icing is required. to think out your thick icing for flooding later, you can simply add water or lemon juice a small drop at a time, till loosened. Royal icing keeps in the fridge up to 3 weeks, and can be beaten again to suit your requirements. It acts as a glue also to attach gummies m $ ms etc… Especially useful for decorating gingerbread houses.
• Decorate! I decorated my gingerbread cookies, with royal icing, candy, melted chocolate and sprinkles. Be creative… it can be so much fun!
• 

Key Ingredients: Flour, Sugar, Baking Soda, Golden Syrup, Spice, Vanilla extract, Royal Icing (Meringue powder or egg white and icing sugar).

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