GingerBread Man Cookies With Fresh Ginger

BM#12: Day1: Today I start another week of blogging marathon and this time I chose "Something Sweet" as a theme. My kid and I have a few favorite sweet eats --Tea/Loaf Cakes, Cookies and of course the decadent and glutinous Halwa!! So I will be posting a few of my(and my little champion's) favorite sweet eats this week. So stay tuned.

These gingerbread man cookies were baked with lot of love at one of my friends place - I was in charge of making the dough and rolling it. One of my buddy took charge of cutting and lining it up on the cookie sheet and the other one was responsible for sticking into and standing watch by the oven so these quick baking cookies don't get burned.As for the Frosting part, the kids took turn to frost their own cookies and everyone at the gathering went ahead and frosted a few. The recipe yielded nearly 65-75 cookies. Don't exactly remember how many cause some were were eaten right out of the oven sans the frosting. It was Oh-so-Good with the addition of spice and with the right amount of crispiness!

The base recipe was from my friend's son's schoolteacher. She had passed on her family's "Gingerbread man Cookies recipe" in the message bag of every kids. I modified it by substituting fresh ginger and molasses + honey combo rather than just molasses. It was gone the same night it was baked. I had to save(=hide) 6-7 of them for the pictures the day after Christmas.

Ingredients:

• 2-1/2 Cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour + More for dusting
• 1 Tsp Baking Powder
• 1/4 Tsp Baking Soda
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
• 1 Tsp Ground Nutmeg
• 1/4 Tsp All Spice Powder
• 1 Farm Fresh Egg
• 1/3 Cup Molasses
• 1/3 Cup Clover Honey
• 1-1/2 Cups Dark Brown Sugar, packed
• 1 Stick(8 Tbsp) Unsalted Butter, cubed and slightly softened
• 1-1/2 Tbsp Freshly Minced/Finely Grated Ginger

Procedure:

• Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, all spice powder in a bowl. Add salt.

• In another wide and large bowl, add the egg, dark brown sugar, softened butter, grated ginger, molasses and honey. Using a handheld electric mixer, thoroughly combine these ingredients.

• Add the sifted flour in batches to the wet mixture.Using a rubber/silicone spatula, incorporate.

• Divide the dough into two discs. Cling wrap it and refrigerate the dough for 2 hours.

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. On a cold marble/Granite surface, dust a lot of flour. Take an orange size portion of the dough and roll it until it reaches 1/4" thick. Please use a heavy rolling pin, preferably a marble rolling pin.

• Using a Gingerbread Man Cookie cutter, cut out the shapes. Re-roll the leftovers and repeat the above step. It is important to keep the dough slightly cold. A warm dough sticks to the surface. If that happens, refrigerate the dough and do it again.

• Bake the cookies for exactly 8 minutes and remove it to a cooling rack. 

• Frosting: Make the frosting with 1 Cup confectioner's sugar + 1/4 Cup Cold Milk. Use gel color drops to color the frosting.

• Frost the cooled cookies and enjoy after a few minutes.

Makes ~65-75 Cookies.
Note:

• Bake the cookies for exactly 8 minutes. No more no less. The cookies will be soft right out of the oven. They harden soon-after. This is what happens when you take it out a minute later-

 Linking to
-  Kid's Delight hosted by Edible Entertainment
- Suma's CEDD  hosted for Raven