At our home, making these gingerbread men is a yearly tradition. It actually started when I volunteered to make them for my kid’s kindergarten classes when they were reading about The Gingerbread Man. As a class, they made one big gingerbread man and took it to the school kitchen to bake it. When they returned to the kitchen to get the gingerbread man after it was fully baked, they discovered it was missing. It had run away! Off the class went to find the runaway gingerbread man throughout the school. After being told about the many gingerbread man sightings… it eventually led them back to their classroom where the baked big gingerbread man was found along with a gingerbread man cookie for each student. I loved to make these and the big gingerbread man for the classes throughout the years. My kids loved getting into the decorating action and it became a favorite yearly family affair.
I didn’t always like gingerbread men. Most were dry and not very tasty. So I sought out to make good ones. Ones the kids would love to eat as well… as they can be the most picky. Here is my recipe and I hope you enjoy it and make this your family holiday tradition too. Just make sure to keep an eye on the oven as they bake….. or they may just run away! Mischievous little guys!
Here are the ingredients you will need.
Give them a good mix. Smells wonderful!
Take half of the dough and form it into a round disk and place on a well floured surface. Make sure to flour the top of the dough too before rolling it out. You will roll it out to about 1/4 inch thickness. I like mine soft and thick.
Cut out as many as you can (my younger son did all the cutting out). Re- roll the dough and repeat. Do this for the other half of the dough left in the bowl. I use a thin, well floured spatula to transfer the unbaked gingerbread men to a cookie sheet.
Be sure to lay a piece of parchment paper on your cookie sheet first. These bad boys are ready to hit the heat. In the oven they go!
The fun part…. decorating them! I put the icing in a pastry bag to make decorating them easier. Two eyes, a smile, buttons and all the trim. Teamwork!
We love the taste of M&M’s much more than red hots, but you can use what you like for the buttons. I also love the pop of color they give.
The finished product! I just love, love love the look of these guys.
We are proud of our work and ready to dig in!
Ya baby… so good! Tastes like Christmas!
Happy Holidays everyone and I hope you are enjoying your own traditions. I would love to know what traditions you do. Maybe I can follow some of yours!
For the full recipe click here.
