Gingerbread Cookies!-I'm Not a Total Failure

brothers

So after my major crafting fail on Saturday I really needed some success to pick me up.  My task for our work holiday party last week was to make a ginger cake.  After I made it, I realized I had all the ingredients (like molasses, ginger, allspice, etc) to make gingerbread cookies.  I have never made gingerbread cookies before so I decided to go for it.  I found a gingerbread cookie recipe in The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook that my sister (wut up L-Fab?) gave me for my birthday.

pic from anthropologie.com

Here's the recipe-ish...

Gingerbread Men Cookies (based on the recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook)
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter (at room temp)
2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup molasses

1-Sift the flour, baking soda and other spices together in one bowl

2-Mix together (with mixer) the butter and brown sugar until fluffy

3-Mix in the egg and molasses

4-Gradually add in a few spoonfuls of the dry ingredients until you have a nice dough

5-Split the dough up into three sections and wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight (I only did this for a few hours)

6-Preheat oven to 325 degrees

7-Pull dough out of fridge and let is soften for about 10 minutes

8-Sprinkle surface with flour and roll out the dough (add more flour to the dough so it doesn't stick)

9-Cut gingerbread men shapes out and bake for 10-15 minutes

10-Let the cookies cool and then decorate

Poor little guy lost a leg.

So these turned out pretty well.  I brought some in for my co-workers and they seemed to enjoy them (except the heartbreaking part where you have to eat off the head).  I did not make the royal icing that the cookbook suggested.  Instead I took the easy route and used the quick drying cookie icing from the store.   Overall, these ended up much better than my snowflake etched glasses.

Have you ever made gingerbread cookies?
Do you think Ted Mosby would count these as a Christmas themed movie snack?