when boys become men.

Countdown to Christmas: 9 More Sleeps Until Santa!

When I was little I remember the best part of getting a gingerbread man was picking the M&Ms off.  I always seemed to get over dry, tooth-breaking ones.  As a challenge to myself I decided that this year would be different & I would learn how to make good ones.  Ones that I could enjoy as an adult without the use of icing & chocolate.

So that’s what this is... gingerbread men for grown ups.

ingredients: 

• 1/2 cup fancy molasses
• 1/4 cup raw cane sugar (I use Cocoa Camino Turbinado cane sugar)
• 3 tbsp butter, melted
• 2 tbsp milk (any type will do)
• 2 cups whole grain all purpose & pastry flour (like Nunweiler’s)
• 1/2 tsp each of -
  • baking soda
  • salt
  • nutmeg
  • cinnamon
  • ginger
  • cloves 

Pour all of your ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix well.  You’ll notice the mixture will become stiff and heavy while you’re doing this, but just keep on mashing/stirring at it with a wooden spoon until everything is mixed in.

Throw your mixing bowl in the fridge for at least an hour (I left mine for 2).

Clean off your counter & make sure it’s very dry.  Dust it and a rolling pin with flour.  Take out 2 cookie sheets and preheat your oven to 375F.

Take your dough out of the fridge and form it into a ball with your hands.  Flour the dough ball well and then gently start to roll it out.  You don’t want to roll it out too thin or else it will start sticking to the surface.  I did mine about 1/2 inch thick and they were perfect.

Using your man-shaped cookie cutter, cut out as many men as you can & place them on the cookie sheet an inch apart.  Gather the extra dough bits together, form them into a ball and repeat until all the dough is used up.

Bake for 8 minutes, let cool for about 5 minutes on the sheet and then remove to a cooling rack.

This recipe will make about a dozen gingerbread men, depending on how big you like ‘em.

Comments

[travis]

as usual; deliciously perfectly delightful.

I always hated the hard cookies too, these ones are going quite nicely with my morning Starbucks!

[kat]

awesome! I hoped that one would make it's way to you this morning :)

[nancy]

Thanks!!! I have to agree with Travis... deliciously perfectly delightful...as usual...
You made my morning!