Cookie Ingredients:
1/2 c. butter
2 & 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. molasses
1 egg
1 Tbsp. vinegar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ginger (add more if you like a stronger flavor--I do)
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp. ground cloves
Frosting Ingredients:
1/3 c. butter, softened
4 c. powdered sugar
1/4 c. milk
1/2 tsp. almond extract (vanilla extract can be used, but almond extract gives the frosting a great flavor!)
Oven Temp: 375
Baking Time: 6-7 minutes
To make the cookies, cream the butter and sugar together, add the egg and vinegar, then add the remaining ingredients and mix until well-combined. Refrigerate the mixture for at least an hour so that it is easier to roll out.
When you are ready to make the cookies, divide the dough in half, keeping one half in the fridge while you work with the other half.
Generously flour your working surface and begin to roll out the dough to approximately 1/4" thick. **(See tip in next paragraph) I sprinkle the top of my gingerbread as well as the work surface. Continue to add flour as necessary so that your gingerbread doesn't stick. Obviously don't use too much, but it's okay if you have some flour on the surface of your gingerbread men--in the end, it bakes away and can't be seen. After your dough has been rolled out, cut it into gingerbread men using a cookie cutter. Gently lift the gingerbread man from the counter and place it onto an ungreased baking sheet, filling the sheet with about 8-12 gingerbread men.
**Rolled/Cut-out Cookie Tip** If you want to, you can roll out the cookies on a piece of parchment paper. Once you have rolled the dough to 1/4" thickness, you then lift the parchment paper and set it directly on your cookie sheet. Use the cookie cutter to cut out the shapes, peel off the excess dough, and you eliminate the step of having to scrape the cut-out-cookie off your work surface and transfer it to the baking sheet. It also eliminates limb and overall gingerbread men casualties. :)
Bake the cookies for 6-7 minutes, remove from the oven and allow them to cool for about a minute on the cookie sheet before transferring them to a cooling rack.
Frosting the gingerbread men comes next. Once your butter is soft, you can mix up all the ingredients listed above. For gingerbread men, you don't want a really thick coating of frosting because that makes it more work for you (and the kids) to pipe the frosting onto the cookies and the frosting will be too dry to stick well to the cookies. If the frosting is a bit too dry, add a splash of milk and mix it up again well (A little milk goes a LONG way).You'll have to play with your frosting mixture--if it's too thin and runny, it's not fun to work with, either. In that case, add a bit more powdered sugar. You're aiming for an almost fluffy, whipped type of texture, though it won't be as smooth as the whipped frostings at the grocery store. Spoon the frosting into decorating bags with a circle tip inserted and go ahead and pipe it onto the cooled cookies. My kids went crazy with this, adding sprinkles and sometimes literally covering the entire cookie in frosting and sprinkles so that you couldn't tell what it was! But they had fun and that's all that matters. After about 15-20 minutes (depending on how heavily the cookies were frosted), the frosting should have solidified a bit and you can go ahead and carefully store them in a container. Have fun!
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