Gingerbread Men.

Last week I decided to start baking holiday cookies and I did Gingerbread Men, which I had never made before. I really loved the texture and rich taste of those cookies!

This recipe is from Cookies, by Williams-Sonoma.

Ingredients:

- 1cup (8 oz/ 250 grams) unsalted butter, at room temp.
- 1/2 cup (3 1/2 ox/ 105g) firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (4 oz/125g) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (11oz/345g) light molasses
- 1 large egg
- 5 cups (25oz/780g) all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 Tbsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on high speed, cream the butter until fluffy and pale yellow.

Add the brown and granulated sugars and beat until the mixture no longer feels gritty.

Gradually beat in the molasses on low speed.

Add the egg and beat on low speed until the mixture is well blended.

Sift the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt together onto a sheet of waxed paper. (I had to do that in several batches because there was way too much flour to be able to do it all at once!)

Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, mixing on low speed or stirring with a wooden spoon until well blended. For me, I have to say that this was really hard. As the consistency of the mixture became drier, I ended up having to use my hands to be able to blend the flour into the mixture because the wooden spoon just wasn't cutting it! I also had given up on using my hand-held mixer because it was not strong enough to be able to do the job. Maybe using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment would be the way to go?

Turn out onto a floured work surface and, with floured hands, form into a large, smooth mound.

Divide the dough into 4 equal portions, shape into disks and wrap each disk into plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.

Preheat oven at 400 degree F (200 C). Lightly grease 2 baking sheets or line with parchment paper. Working with one disk at a time, roll out the dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper to a thickness of about 1/4 inch (6 mm).

Using gingerbread cookie cutters, cut out figures.

Use an offset spatula to transfer t the prepared pan. Repeat with the remaining dough portions, then gather up the scraps, reroll them, and cut out additional cookies. If the scraps of dough have become sticky, refrigerate for 10 min before rerolling.

Bake the gingerbread figures until lightly browned on the bottom, about 6 minutes. Let sit on th sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Enjoy dressing up the cooled gingerbread cookies with icing, sugars, and other decorations!

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