I started making Gingerbread men for the Christmas Tree when I had little ones running around.  I wanted ornaments for the tree that I wouldn’t mind getting broken and ideally were also edible for exploring toddlers.  I have made this same recipe since 1992. Now that my babies are grown, I prepared this photo tutorial to help them to make their first solo batch.

  

Ingredients needed

3 1/4 cups all-purpose Flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp groud cinnamon

2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp groud cloves

I cup salted butter (2 sticks) softened

3/4 cup dark brown sugar (firmly packed)

1 large egg

1/2 cup unsulfured molasses

Icing:

2/3 cup Confectioners sugar

1 to 2 tsp. milk

makes 2 1/2 dozen 6 -inch cookies, 3 1/2 dozen 4-inch cookies

Supplies needed: 

1 large and 1 medium mixing bowl

mixing spoons ( can be bought at the grocery store where a 1/4 teaspoon (tsp) ,1/2 teaspoon ,full teaspoon and tablespoon come together on a ring

mixing cups , 1/4 cup,1/2 cup,full cup

cookie cutters of your choice

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Step 1 Gather up all your ingredients

Tip: You will enjoy baking alot more if main ingredients like flour and sugar are easy to measure and work with..  Buy a plastic container with a tight fitting lid to keep flour and sugar in.  It cuts down on the mess of measuring out the ingredients.

Step 2

take 2 sticks of butter out of the fridge and leave on the counter to soften

Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt,cinnamon, ginger, and cloves in the medium bowl.  If you don’t have a whisk,just use a spoon and stir softly.

Be sure to level off your measuring cups and spoons with the flat side of a knife so you have correct measurements.

Step 3

With the large bowl,and an electric mixer cream together the butter and sugar

til this

Looks like this

Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spoon.  Add the egg (mix  up the egg like you are making scrambled eggs before adding to the bowl)  and molasses, and beat on medium speed until smooth. Don’t over mix.

scrape bowl  and add the flour mixture ,about 1/3 of it at a time. Blend on low speed until just combined.  Do not over mix.

it will look like this.

Step 4

Put some flour on your hands so you can pick up the wet doughy mixture more easily.  You will make 3 balls of dough out of the mixture.

Tip: Sprinkle the dough in your hand and your hands with a little flour to keep the dough from sticking to your hands and to make it easy to make the dough into a ball.Then flatten the dough ball with the palm of your hand so it looks like a fat flat disc then put in a plastic bag..

Use as much flour as you need.  Don”t worry about using too much. Put each of the 3 dough balls into their own plastic bag and put into the freezer for about 30 minutes.  The dough must be very cold and a little stiff for you to be able to roll out the dough to make your cookies.

While you are rolling out the dough and using your cookie cutters,if your dough gets warm,put the dough in one of the plastic bags and put back in the freezer for 10-15 minutes ,until it is cold and stiff and easy to work with again.

Tip: Dough will keep in the freezer for one month

You can roll out your dough for cookies in 10 minutes, or keep in the freezer until you are ready.

Questions and comments are welcomed.

To be continued: Part 2 of this post will be rolling out your cookies