Manageability – Easy, but takes an hour.
The gingerbread man dates back to the 15th Century court of Elizabeth I in England, with the first recorded… Oh wait, that’s not right. Nevermind. That’s how other recipe websites start. Gingerbread is old as dirt. That’s all you need to know. But these cute little gingerbread men from The Kitchen is My Playground are a simple delight. Tasty and festive.
Not much to look out for here. You will need to boil some ingredients before mixing together, and then you will also need to let the mixture set for an hour in the fridge, but just set it and go watch an episode of SVU or something. After that, you just have to roll, cut, sprinkle and bake. I used gold round nonpareils for decoration, but you have plenty of options on these: red, white, gold, or even sprinkles. Go crazy, folks. Go crazy.
The Christmas season may be over, but it’s never too late (or early) in the year for a warm tasty gingerbread cookie. So make these little guys and curl up with Olivia Benson for some stories of justice and heartbreak on the mean streets of New York City.
Ingredients
- 1/4 c. brown sugar
- generous 1/3 c. molasses. A 1/3 c. that donates to charity and doesn’t ask for a thank you card.
- 2 tsp. ground ginger
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 c. unsalted butter, cut into chunks
- 1 egg (chicken)
- 2 ½ to 3 c. all-purpose flour
- white or red/green/white nonpareil sprinkles. Or gold.
Instructions
- Place butter chunks in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
- Put brown sugar, molasses, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves in a pan and heat to boiling point. Stir in baking soda. Take off heat and pour mixture over the butter in the mixing bowl. Be happy about your work so far.
- Stir until the butter has melted. Break egg into the mixture and stir to combine; then work in 2 ½ cups flour. Mix gently together until it becomes a smooth dough, adding up to ½ cup more flour if needed.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour, or one episode of SVU.
- When chilled and stiffened slightly, roll out dough to desired thickness (probably about 1/4″ thick. I like thick, soft cookies, and you know what that’s my business).
- Sprinkle dough all over with nonpareil sprinkles; gently roll once with rolling pin to adhere sprinkles to the dough, being careful to not press the sprinkles too far down into the dough. Cut out cookies with 1-inch gingerbread man cookie cutter or other mini cookie cutter shapes.
- Place cookies on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 325 degrees for 8-10 minutes.
- Smile and watch another episode of SVU.