Gingerbread Men Cookies

Here's the basic gingerbread cookie recipe as well as the recipe for Royal Icing.

Cut the cookies into any shapes you want!

Add food coloring to the icing as desired.

INGREDIENTS~

3 cups flour

2 tsp ground ginger (I use 3)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

1.5 sticks softened butter (3/4 cup)

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup molassas

1 egg

STEPS~

Mix flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt together.

In a different bowl, combine the butter and brown sugar with a mixer on medium speed until nice and fluffy.

Add the molassas and egg into the butter/brown sugar mixture and beat well.

Now gradually beat in the flour mixture to the butter/brown sugar mixture using a mixer on a low speed.

Once it's all mixed well, gather up the dough into a big, flat disk and wrap it up in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Overnight is better.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Lightly flour a work surface and your hands and then roll out the cold dough to about 1/4 inch thick.

Cut out shapes using a cookie cutter. (advice - avoid cutters that create overly thin areas as they tend to break easily. This is usually the neck area)

Gather up the scrapes and work into 1/4 inch thick and cut out more shapes.

Place your cookies on a greased cookie sheet, about and inch apart from each other and pop into the oven for 8 to 10 minutes. Pull out when edges of cookies are set and dough is just starting to brown.

Remove from oven and transfer cookies to wire cooling racks.

Decorate with store bought icing or homemade royal icing.

ROYAL ICING RECIPE~

INGREDIENTS~
1 lb powdered sugar

1 tsp cream of tarter (it's with the other spices at the store)

3 beaten egg whites

6 TBSP hot water

DIRECTIONS~

Icing hardens fast so be prepared to decorate cookies right away after making the icing. Combine everything into a large bowl and beat with a mixer on high about 6 minutes. You want nice, stiff peaks to form and the icing should be shiny and fluffy.

If you are making different colors, set aside 1/2 cup of icing in a separate bowl and add 1 drop of food color and mix well. If you want a stronger color, add 1 drop at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Place cookies on aluminum foil before icing them.

Use a knife, paint brush or icing bags to decorate the cookies.

Advice - to avoid different colors from bleeding into each other on the cookie, let the 1st icing dry completely before putting a different color on top of it.

If your icing starts to harden too fast, add one TBSP hot water at a time and mix well.

MORAVIAN GINGERBREAD COOKIES

These cookies are very moist and chewy. They have a strong gingerbread/molassas taste. Make them small so that the taster isn't overwhelmed. Nice dipped in applesauce as you eat.

Ingredients:

4.5 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter
1.5 cups dark molassas (cut back to 1 cup if you want to make this milder)
1/2 tsp white vinegar

Directions:

1. Mix flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and ginger together
2. In another bowl, mix butter and brown sugar until creamy
3. Add butter mixture into dry ingredients bowl and mix well
4. Add molassas and vinegar. Mix well
5. Cover bowl and chill dough overnight
6. With wet hands, form dough into small balls (dough will be sticky)
7. Press balls down onto non-stick cookie sheet, about 1/8th inch thick
8. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes at 350F - until lightly browned.




FYI- Moravia is next to Bohemia, both now part of the Czech Republic. It is north of Vienna and east of Prague. Moravia was independant in the beginning, then part of the 500 year rule of the Hapsburg family dynasty. In the beginning people spoke German and Czech dialects. Now it's mostly Czech. Towns and streets with German names were translated into Czech or renamed after WW2. This photo is of a MORAVIAN STAR, a popular "Germanic" decoration at Christmas time.