It’s almost Christmas!! And nothing says Christmas like gingerbread men (or women). Especially when you pair these gingerbread treats with a warm cup of tea or hot cocoa (sitting by the fire of course 😉 ). They are full of flavour and spice like ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and molasses. You’d have to be crazy not to like gingerbread, right?!

If you know me personally you’d know I love to give gifts from my kitchen and share my passion for baking with the people I love and care about. It’s such a simple gift to share and it gives me so much joy. Isn’t that what it’s all about – enjoying the simple pleasures in life?

A group of good friends of mine finally found some time to spend a night together, celebrating Christmas and enjoying catching up. It’s a rarity to get us all together these days so it was nice to be able to fit it in before the holiday craziness! I couldn’t think of a better time to share some cute, yummy little gingerbread men then with good friends! The best part was getting a picture of their kids the next day enjoying their gingerbread 🙂 It’d the simple joys! Merry Christmas Friends

Ingredients

Unsalted butter
Granulated sugar
Egg
Fancy molasses
Blackstrap (cooking) molasses
All-purpose flour
Ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves
Baking soda
Salt

Gingerbread Men

Print Recipe

Crisp, gingery and full of holiday spice, these gingerbread cookies are a holiday favourite.

Author: Alie Romano (adapted from Canadian Living)
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 10 mins
Total Time: 1 hour 10 mins
Yield: 24 1x
Category: Cookies
Cuisine: British

Ingredients

Units Scale

1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup (113 g) fancy molasses
1/4 cup (85 g) blackstrap (cooking) molasses
3 cups (384 g) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Cream butter and sugar in a stand mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg and both types of molasses to the butter mixture until well combined.
In a separate bowl add flour, spices, baking soda, and salt. Mix together.
Add the flour mixture in 2 to 3 batches to the butter mixture, and mix well until dough rolls into a ball.
Divide dough in half and flatten into discs. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 – 60 minutes or until firm.
Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 325˚F.
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Once your dough is ready, roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface about 1/4 inch thick. If your dough is too cold to roll let it sit at room temperature for 5 minutes before rolling.
Using a gingerbread man cookie cutter cut out men and place on your baking sheets about an inch apart.
Bake for approx. 10 minutes, or until the bottoms are just starting to turn brown. They will firm up as they cool.
Transfer to a cooling rack.
Once cookies are cooled ice with Royal Icing (recipe Below).

Nutrition

Serving Size: 1 Plain Cookie
Calories: 133
Sugar: 8.8g
Sodium: 84mg
Fat: 4.2g
Saturated Fat: 2.5g
Unsaturated Fat: 0
Trans Fat: 0
Carbohydrates: 22.3g
Fiber: 0.5g
Protein: 1.9
Cholesterol: 17mg

Royal Icing

Print Recipe

A classic, simple royal icing recipe that can be used to fancy up cookies, cakes, and all sorts of treats.

Author: Alie Romano
Prep Time: 8 mins
Total Time: 8 mins
Yield: 2 cups 1x
Category: Dessert
Cuisine: British

Ingredients

Units Scale

2 egg whites, at room temperature
2 cups sifted icing sugar
1–2 teaspoons lemon juice (optional)

Instructions

In a clean, dry bowl of a stand mixer, whisk egg whites until foamy (about 3 minutes), add lemon juice if using.
Slowly add icing sugar.
Raise the speed to medium – high until icing is thick and shiny. This should take about 3 minutes (If you feel the mixture is still too runny at this point you can add more icing sugar to help stiffen it up, just add a little at a time).
Add icing to a piping bag and pipe on cooled cookies.
Let air dry for at least an hour or until rock hard.

Notes

Royal icing is a bit of a trial and error to find the consistency that you like to work with (thick or runny). Rule of thumb is one egg white to one cup of icing sugar. Remember when the icing is runny the icing will spread out.
Also the icing needs lots of time to air dry (I like to let my cookies air dry overnight).
The cookies will keep 2-3 weeks in an air tight container.