Gingerbread Boys :as made by the Christmas Elves

 In a large bowl,preferably one decorated with holly or other holiday items, sift or whisk together 3 cups  all-purpose flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 3/4 teaspoon baking soda,  2 teaspoons ground ginger,1 teaspoon ground cinnamon,1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

You need to just stand and smell of this  for a few minutes, then set it aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), (Santa got us a brand-new electric mixer last year), cream 1/2 cup butter and  1/2 cup white granulated sugar( you know, the kind that looks like  glittery SNOW!!) until light and fluffy. Add 1 large egg (from the Holiday Hen, if you can.) 2/3 cup unsulphured molasses  and beat until well combined.Before we had the electric mixer this made our arms very tired. Gradually add the flour mixture,(remember, we sat that aside in the holiday bowl!) beating until all mixed in well.

Divide the dough in half, and wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours (or  you can leave it overnight.)  This sounds like a long wait, but this is when the baking elves practice their singing. Our favorite song is Rocking Around The Christmas Tree
 
 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. --lightly grease( or spray with the non-stick stuff) your cookie baking pans and set aside while you roll out the dough.

On a lightly floured surface,(Sometimes with forget and toss the flour around like snow but usually that gets us in a lotof trouble, so we suggest you do not do that.) roll out the dough to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Use your special gingerbread people  cutters to cut out the cookies.Cut them close, then reroll the scraps you have left.  With a spatula lift the cut out cookies onto the baking sheet, placing the cookies about 1 inch  apart. ( You don't want them to join togather when baking!) If you are hanging the cookies or using as gift tags, make a hole at the top of the cookies with a straw or end of a wooden skewer. If you end up with some dough
that will not roll big enough for a cookie, just roll it and put it on the sheet in the shape it is. This is special, 'cause it is the
baker's treat!

Bake for about 8 - 12 minutes depending on the size of the cookies. Small ones will take about 8 minutes, larger cookies will take about 12 minutes. They are done when they are firm and the edges are just beginning to brown. Elves can smell when cookies are done, but that takes long years of training, so we suggest you watch your clocks closely.

Remove the cookies from the oven and cool on the baking sheet for about 1 minutes. When they are firm enough to move, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. We have to set someone up to guard the fresh cookies because the other elves will come in and try to steal them while they are hot.

Decorating is the most  FUN part. If desired, you can press raisins, currants, or candies into the dough for eyes and buttons before you bake the cookies.Elves do not do that,ever! We use confectioners frosting   to decorate the cookies after they are baked. Elf bakers would rather use the icing as a glue to attach candies, raisins, and sprinkles. What fun we have getting our cookie decorations ready to use.Make sure you get those little red cinnamon ones for buttons. We think the silver balls are festive too.

Here is how to make the Confectioners Frosting: In an electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream 1/2 cup butter until smooth and well blended.  Add  1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract . With the mixer on low speed, gradually beat in
2 cups confectioners sugar (icing or powdered sugar), sifted .Elves love to sing loudly when they use the mixer.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beater. Add  1 1/2 tablespoons milk or light cream and beat on high speed until frosting is light and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes).  Add a little more milk if too dry. Place the frosting in a pastry bag fitted with a decorative tip and decorate the gingerbread men as desired.Do you know you can put the icing in a plastic bag, like a zip-lock bag, cut the
very small tip off the corner of the bag and squeeze to decorate? Well now you do,that will be our gift to you!

You can tint portions of frosting with desired food color (At the North Pole kitchens we use the paste  food coloring that is available at cake decorating stores and party stores).But mostly we just leave it white for decorating the gingerbread cookies.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies depending on the size of cookie cutter used, and how must dough you ate raw..This might be enough for home use. but for your information, from Gingerbread Sunday until Elf Eve, we have pans of cookies in the oven at all times. The elves make millions of  holiday cookies. I suppose that's why we sing so well. We stay in the kitchen and practice day and night.

Store  your cookies in highly decorated flat containers. If you pile the gingerbread people very  high it might make them have broken arms or legs or worse.

Have fun..get in there and make your kitchen smell festive!!

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