Gingerbread Man Cookies

I am soo happy to be posting a new recipe as it means I finally have some free time in my life!  I saw these cookies on Pinterest and Connor happened to be standing next to me.  Of course, he was excited to make them and I hadn't tried making Gingerbread Men before so thought I'd give it a try.  It wasn't too difficult except for finding the cookie cutter but fortunately a friend lent me hers.  I find that cookie cutters are really a hit and miss item.  You have to buy them when you see them.

The cookies were delicious.  I just bought the decorating tubes at Safeway and also used M & M's for the buttons.  I changed a couple things in the recipe and included the changes below.  You could also try the recipe with orange zest instead of lemon and use 2 tablespoons of dark corn syrup instead of the molasses.  I liked it the way we made it but that was the original recipe so they are also possibilities.  I also changed the cook time to 3-4 minutes less as I burnt our first batch and found that 8 minutes was just about right for our oven.

Gingerbread Man Recipe

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon zest
• 3 tablespoons molasses
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

 Directions

1. Cream the butter and the sugar together. Add the egg and mix well. Mix in the lemon zest and molasses.  Add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, ground cloves and salt, mixing until well combined. Chill dough for at least 2 hours, I like to chill overnight.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough out to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 inch apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 8-10 minutes in the preheated oven, until cookies are firm and lightly toasted on the edges. 

My little cookie monsters: