**You will need a Gingerbread Man Cookie Cutter

Gingerbread Sugar Cookies
*

*3/4 cup Butter, room temperature or Shortening

*1 and 1/2 cups Granulated Sugar

*1/4 cup Molasses

*1 cup Whipping Cream or Canned Milk or (1/2 cup Sour Cream and 1/2 Cup Milk)

*1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract

*1 teaspoon Salt

*4 and 1/2 cups All-purpose Flour

*1 teaspoon Cinnamon

*3/4 teaspoon Ground Ginger

*1/2 teaspoon Allspice

*1/4 teaspoon Ground Cloves

*4 teaspoons Baking Powder
*

Pre-heat oven 350*F.
*

Cream together in stand mixer: Butter, sugar, molasses, cream, vanilla and salt.
*

Sift together in bowl: Flour, cinnamon,ginger, allspice, cloves and baking powder.
*

Slowly add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture in stand mixer on low-speed and mix well and (scrapping down the sides of the bowl occasionally) forms a soft dough ball.

*

Hint: Refrigeration of the dough will always make the cookies roll, cut and cook a little better; Also using a cooled 1/2 baking sheet with each batch of cookies helps too!
*

Roll out cookie dough using half the dough at a time, so not to over working the dough and cut cookies with a Gingerbread man cookie cutter.
*

Place cookies on a Silpat covered half baking sheet or cookie sheet of your choice sprayed with cooking spray or covered with parchment paper.
*

Bake for 8-10 minutes or when edges barely start to turn a little darker brown but not burned. Also depends on the size of cookie.
*

Hint: I’ve always usually mix my cookies by hand but my daughter is a pastry chef and mixes everything in stand mixer but either way works great!

*

Basic Royal Icing

*
*1 pound Powdered Sugar (around 4 cups)

*3 tablespoons Meringue Powder

*1 teaspoon Clear Vanilla Extract

*6 tablespoons Water, add gradually for consistency for piping, more or less as needed

Coloring:

*
Add  small amounts of coloring at a time until desired color of icing.

*Paste Food Coloring, Wilton , Red for mouth and nose, Black for coal buttons, eyes and mouth, Orange for nose if desired

*Reserve 1 cup of the white icing a 1/2 cup for the red and 1/2 cup black, reserve more depending on the design of the gingerbread you want

Supplies:

*

*New Pastry Bags, clip off very tip for piping (can use pastry tips if desired but not necessary)

*Moist Flour Sack Towel, for cover icing in bowl to keep icing from drying out

*
Mix together the icing ingredients on medium speed in a stand mixer (with grease free bowl) and use a grease free whisk attachment beat about 7 minutes or until it makes peaks (it will be thick). Divide icing into different bowls if making different colors, add food paste/coloring stir until coloring is incorporated. Then thin icing as needed for piping icing on cookies. Let icing rest to allow bubbles to pop. (If you do get bubbles in your iced cookies pop with a tooth pick before they set.) Then fill the piping bags 1/2 full.

*
Note 1 : When filling bags you might need 2 bags one with thick piping icing for lining and a second bag with thinner icing of the same color for flooding/piping the center.

*
Pipe around each cookie close to edge with a slightly thick icing making sure it flows well out of piping bag but doesn’t run. (If you don’t like the piped edge line look, then fill the piped lined cookie after about every 5 cookies with a thinner icing to filling/flooding the center of the cookies, this helps with line not to show. (We didn’t mind the line look around the edge to show, so we piped a single piping around ALL the cookies and then filled/flooded ALL of the cookies with the slightly thinner frosting using another bag with thinner icing constancy.)

*
Note 2 : For thickening the icing add powder sugar or for thinning, add small drops or teaspoons of water until constancy needed.

Pipe on Icing as desired on each Gingerbread Man.

Enjoy!

Lindy