GingerBread Man - Eat his legs first so he can't run !!!

Run run as fast as you can..You can't catch me ...I am the Gingerbread Man !!

My kids love Gingerbread Man...And every time I have to bake a whole army of Gingerbread Men...because my boys like to have Gingerbread Man battles...it is such a pleasure to watch them play with this makeshift toy.



These are really fragrant cookies from all the honey, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Lots of spices and flavours but all of them come together into this really delicious cookie.

The first time I made these, I thought it was going to be a disaster after I mixed the dough and if you think the same, don't lose heart even though the dough would seem so sticky...you'll wonder how you would ever roll these out...but once chilled these are the easiest cookies to roll out....

And its fun to cut and decorate with the kids. Get your kids to cut them and give them some chocolate to decorate...its a wonderful way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Make stars, triangles and half moon Gingerbread cookie and use them to decorate your Christmas tree. Make a small hole with a straw on one corner of your cookie when you roll them out and hang them with the help of a rope and get your children to jump and catch them lest they run away.....



Traditionally Gingerbread man is decorated with royal icing but chocolate is good for me adn more importantly. my children.


Ingredients:


3/4 cup Butter (6 fl oz)
1 cup Honey (8 fl oz)
5 fl oz Sugar, powdered
2 cups whole wheat flour (16 fl oz)
1 tsp nutmeg powder
1 tbsp Ground ginger/  2 tsp Ginger Spice drop
1/2 tsp cloves powder
1 large egg
1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (only if using unsalted butter)

For the icing:

1 cup finely chopped Dark Chocolate.

1. Melt the chocolate on a double boiler and let it cool into a smooth paste.
2. use a toothpick to make the eyes, buttons etc for the cookie or just dunk them in chocolate to make a Chocolate Gingerbread man. Use small candy to make their eyes and buttons.
3. You can use raisins or nuts as eyes and buttons. Just stick them in the cookie before baking them.

Method:

1. In a thick bottomed saucepan, over a low flame, heat the butter, sugar and honey. Stir in the spices. Remove from fire once the butter has melted and sugar and honey have dissolved.
2. Transfer into a deep mixing bowl and let it cool down till lukewarm. 
3. Beat in the egg.
4. Sieve the flour and baking powder together. If using unsalted butter, then sieve together the salt also.
5. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and with a flat spoon make a dough. Use the hook/dough attachment of your blender for convenience.
6. The dough will seem very sticky.
7. Bring the dough together and wrap in a cling film. Refrigerate for at least 40 minutes till very firm to touch.
8. Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.
9. On a well floured surface, roll out the dough. The thickness can vary depending on your taste. If you want crisper cookies then 2-3 mm thick. Otherwise if you like chewy-soft-on- the-inside cookies then 5 mm thick.
10. Before cutting with the cutter remember to brush off the excess flour used for rolling with a pastry brush.
11. Cut using cookie cutter and place them on the baking tray.
12. Chill the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for 15 min to firm up the butter and relax the gluten.
13. Take the baking tray out of the refrigerator and bake them at 180 for 15 - 18 min till the edges are firm and brown. A cookie cooks further while it cools, so you need to take it out once the edges have set and the center is almost set (90%), not completely set.
14. If you have rolled out the cookie thinner then reduce the baking time by 3-4 min.
15. Take them out of the oven and turn them out with a flat spatula onto a wire rack to cool.
16. Take them out very slowly because at this point they are still very delicate and may break if you are not too careful.
17. Once cooled ice them just the way you want...This is the best part...so enjoy..

Just before getting baked