Dottie's Gingerbread Men

Ross’s paternal grandmother didn’t enjoy cooking much, but these cookies came out at Christmas time. She loved making them, and we loved eating them! This is the only gingerbread man cookie recipe I’ve ever had that actually made tasty cookies. And it makes a lot of them!

ingredients

5 c flour
1 1/2 t baking soda
2 t ginger
1 t cinnamon
1 t cloves
1/2 t cardamom
1 t nutmeg
1 c shortening
1 c sugar
1 egg
1 c molasses
2 T vinegar
1/2 t salt

directions

1
Sift together dry ingredients.
2
Beat shortening for 30 seconds. Cream in sugar, then add egg, molasses, vinegar and beat well.
3
Add dry ingredients to wet and mix.
4
Cover and chill for at least 3 hours.
5
Preheat oven to 375F.
6
Roll out to 1/8 inch and cut with cookie cutters.
7
Bake on a GREASED cookie sheet 5-6 minutes.
8
Cool 1 minute, and remove to a wire rack.

Royal Icing

You can decorate these with royal icing, which isn’t as intimidating as I always thought it was. It dries hard, which makes the cookies much more packable and decoration-appropriate. Sift 4 cups of powdered sugar and 1/2 t cream of tartar into a large bowl. Add 3 egg whites (buy pasteurized eggs or egg whites if you worry about that sort of thing) and 1 t vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer 8-10 minutes, or until the icing is thick and holds peaks. Color with food color as desired. Pop into zip top bags and trim the corner to pipe.

Source: Dorothy Bedilion