Gingerbread Men! The ultimate Christmas cookie, is it not??
Gingerbread Men
Is it too early to get into Christmas baking? I think not.
And is there any cookie more Christmas-y than Gingerbread Men? I KNOW not! Smells like Christmas, tastes like Christmas, looks like Christmas!
You’ll love these Gingerbread Men. You can actually really taste the ginger and spice flavour. They are lovely and moist inside, and you can make the dough months in advance – super handy to bake up fresh when the necessity arises!
What you need for Gingerbread Men
Here’s what you need to make these little Christmas Gingerbread Men!
Just some notes on a few of the ingredients:
Molasses – Essential for that deep, rich, caramel-like gingerbread flavour! It also helps hold the dough’s shape. Golden syrup makes a great sub, or treacle. Honey will also work, but the cookies will spread out a touch more and not have the same deep flavour (but still very, very good!). Maple syrup is no good, it’s too thin.
Brown sugar – I’ve used ordinary brown sugar here. Light brown sugar results in a slightly lighter colour gingerbread and dark brown sugar can also be used which yields a richer, deeper brown colour. All are tasty!
Softened butter – If you want specifics: 17°C/63°F is ideal. It should be malleable but should not make your fingers shiny with grease when you poke it. Your finger should basically be clean. The texture is important: If it’s too soft, this will compromise your cookie dough!
Large egg – This is an egg that is 55-60g / 2oz, labelled as “large eggs” on the carton (it’s standardised). Make sure it’s at room temperature. Fridge cold eggs won’t blend in well (and also could cool the butter).
Spices:
Ground ginger, of course. We are making GINGERbread men, after all!
Mixed Spice is a store bought blend of spices used holiday dishes that gives Gingerbread Men more layers of flavour. Using just ginger and cinnamon as many recipes do is just too one dimensional! Smells of Christmas, hails from Britain, common in Australia but if you can’t find it where you are, don’t worry – it’s easy to make up your own using standard spices: cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and coriander (in recipe notes, and don’t worry if you’re missing one or two); and
Cloves are optional but add a nice hit of spice and warmth to the dough.
How to make Gingerbread Men
Gingerbread Men are made using a soft, generously-spiced cookie dough. It’s rolled out then a Gingerbread Men cookie cutter is used to cut the shapes out. Of course, it doesn’t have to be a Gingerbread Man – you can make any shape you want!
Making the Gingerbread Cookie Dough
Cream the butter and sugar, then add egg and vanilla. You can use a stand mixer or a handheld beater, as I have done;
Beat in the molasses – it will change the colour to a deep golden brown colour;
Beat in the dry ingredients in 4 equal batches. Adding them gradually helps them incorporate more easily; and
The dough will be soft and sticky – kind of like clay – and should stick together when you press it together.
Cutting Gingerbread Men Shapes
The dough is quite soft and sticky so refrigerate it to firm it up. Do so for at least 2 hours, but you can leave it in the fridge for up to 5 days, or even freeze it for 3 months!
Cut the dough in half so you have one half to work with while you return the other half to the fridge to keep it cold.
Roll the dough out between two sheets of baking paper / parchment paper;
Cut out Gingerbread Men shapes. My cutter is 11cm/4.5″ long. Press down firmly to cut all the way through so they lift out cleanly (though if you have scrappy edges, you can just tidy them up easily on the baking tray).
Gingerbread Dough Rolling Tips
Gingerbread dough is quite soft and sticky which is what makes the cookies moist instead of dry inside. Refrigeration makes the dough easier to work with. At any point during the roll/cutting process, you can stop and refrigerate it to make it easier to work with (be sure to cover dough with cling wrap).
Rolling out between paper is easiest. Try to minimise use of dusting flour otherwise you will have white dust on the cooked gingerbread.
When rolling, paper on underside tends to wrinkle as dough spreads out (which blemishes dough surface), so flip dough, peel off wrinkled paper then put it back on, smoothing out wrinkles.
Transferring and Baking
Peel off excess dough from around the Gingerbread Men;
Transfer shapes to a baking tray using a palette knife or large kitchen knife. Something long and thin is best to minimise ruining the shape!
Place on a baking paper/parchment-lined tray, adjust the shapes and tidy up the edges if needed (I use a butter knife – just press on the scruffy edges to make them neat); and
Bake for 12 minutes for light golden and mostly soft (though slightly crisp on edges), or 14 minutes for deeper golden and crisp. The gingerbread men will be soft out of the oven but will firm up as they cool. Note however even crisp gingerbread men soften the next day. I’m yet to discover the secret to keep Gingerbread Men crispy (other than using a drier dough but that just makes dry Gingerbread Men!).
Crispy vs Soft?
If you want a softer cookie with the signature golden colour (pictured – my pick!), stick to 12 minutes bake time. For a crispy cookie with more colour, bake 14 minutes. For the latter, the cookies will be soft straight from the oven, but will harden upon cooling. Note however, even crispy cookies go soft the next day. They just won’t stay firm, sadly!
This recipe makes 20 Gingerbread Men using a cutter that’s 11cm / 4.5″ tall. I use 3 baking trays because the flow of this recipe works nicely to fill and bake one tray at a time.
Decorating the Gingerbread Men
The best icing to use to decorating Gingerbread Men is Royal Icing. It’s suitable for piping intricate designs which means it’s perfect for putting smiley faces on our Gingerbread Men, giving them decorative pants / skirts / shorts and gluing on belly buttons etc.
Also, this icing sets hard and so won’t soften the Gingerbread Men.
You can get as fancy as you want with your decorations! The way I’ve piped the icing across the arms and waist in a zig-zag is a pretty classic way of decorating Gingerbread Men.
I use mini M&M’s and silver balls for the buttons.
And yes, I did give him a smiley face. Nobody wants to eat a grumpy Gingerbread Man! 😂 And even through this toughest of years we can all find some reason to smile, right? – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
This goes down as the cutest recipe video I’ve made all year!!!
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Gingerbread Men
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 3 cups flour , plain/all purpose
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp mixed spice (Note 1)
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves (Note 2)
Wet Ingredients:
- 85g / 5 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter , softened (Note 3)
- 3/4 cup brown sugar (Note 4 re: light or dark brown)
- 1 large egg , at room temperature (Note 5)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup molasses, light / true (NOT blackstrap)(Note 6)
Instructions
- Whisk Dry Ingredients on one bowl.
- Cream butter & sugar – In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together using a stand mixer or electric beater on speed 7 for 2 minutes, or until light and fluffy.
- Egg & vanilla – Add the egg and vanilla, then mix on speed 5 until combined (~30 sec).
- Molasses – Add the molasses, mix for 1 minute using speed 2.
- Gradually add dry ingredients – Add 1/4 of the Dry ingredients, then mix until you can't see flour (start on speed 1 to stop flour flying everywhere!). Repeat until all Dry ingredients are mixed in, then mix for further 15 seconds. Dough should be soft and a bit sticky – see video for texture.
- Refrigerate – Pat dough into a disc shape, wrap in the cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or until firm. (Can refrigerate 5 days or freeze 3 months).
- Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C (170°C fan) and set a shelf in the middle. Line 3 x baking trays with parchment/baking paper.
- Take the dough out of the refrigerator and cut into half. Wrap half and return to the fridge.
- Roll out (Note 7)- Sprinkle a sheet of baking paper very lightly with flour. Place dough on top, sprinkle surface very lightly with flour. Place another sheet of baking paper on top. Roll dough out until 4mm / 1/6" thick using a rolling pin. As you work, flip and if paper is wrinkling, peel it off then put if back on, smoothing out wrinkles.
- Cut out shapes (Note 8) – Use a gingerbread cookie cutter to cut out gingerbread men shapes, firmly pressing to cut all the way through. If the dough sticks to the cutter, dip it into flour.
- Transfer – Use a palette knife (or large knife) to transfer shapes onto baking sheet. Place 6 on the first sheet. Tidy edges if necessary using a butter knife.
- Bake Tray 1 – Bake for 12 minutes (for classic light golden) or 14 minutes (dark golden and crisp). Then remove and cool fully on tray.
- Repeat – Meanwhile, gather scraps of dough, press together then roll out again. If dough is sticky, return to refrigerator and work on the other half of the dough instead. Repeat rolling out and cutting out. You should have 18 to 20 gingerbread men in total (depending on cutter size)
- Trays 2 & 3 – Fill and bake 2nd and 3rd tray with gingerbread men, 6 to 8 on each tray. I find the workflow that works best is baking one tray at a time ie. roll/cut-out/fill/bake one tray while you prepare the next.
- Decorate – Fully cool on trays, then decorate! Use a half batch of this Royal Icing recipe to pipe and stick on decorations (sets hard and doesn't soak into cookies). The recipe makes more than you need, but it's impractical to make less. So freeze leftovers in fully sealed piping bag for future use.
Recipe Notes:
- 1/4 tsp each cinnamon and all spice
- 1/8 tsp each nutmeg, cloves, ginger and coriander
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
You wear an elf hat for a photo, I’ll give you a Gingerbread doughnut …. pretty good deal, if you ask me!
My 3 year old and I made these together as Christmas gifts. They were fun and easy to make and were delicious.
Unfortunately I had no cute cutters and had to substitute the treacle with golden syrup, but these biscuits tasted lovely nonetheless. The soft middle is nice but I especially like the sweet and crispy edges!
If the oven temp is on this page… It needs to be moved to somewhere more noticeable please. Assume its about 180c?
Hi can anyone tell me what temperature should the oven be at please?
Thank you🙂
it should be at 170 fan force celicus
Hi what temperature should the oven be at?
Hi Nagi,
Would this recipe would work for making a gingerbread house? I am worried the gingerbread won’t be hard enough to stand up on its own. Thank you!!
Hi Nagi,
Accidentally used blackstrap…
😅 🤢 had to start again, instead using treacle. Refrigerating at the time of writing. Is the dough meant to taste a little weird? Afraid I added too much. 🙃
HI Ivy – it shouldn’t taste weird – did you measure the ingredients? N x
Hi Nagi,
Never mind, I took it out of the fridge two hours later and it tasted so good! 😋 turned out great. I did have to adjust the cooking time by 3 or 4 minutes so they didn’t burn. 😋😋🎄 Merry Christmas!
Hi Nagi! Silly question I’m sure, but I’m wondering about the salt. I took all of my ingredients out based off the image on the top but then I followed the recipe and after I put my dough in the refrigerator I realized I hadn’t put any salt in it. Think it’ll be ok? X
Hi Katy – that will affect the flavour a bit but they will still be tasty – I always suggest you jump to the written recipe at the bottom and read it all the way through before starting to cook so as not to miss anything! N x
I didn’t add it since it wasn’t in the written instruction. They turned out okay!
I can’t see any notes about salt at all in the recipe..may be missing something here 🤔
Hi Nagi, I wonder if there is a mistake with the metric conversion for flour? I think 1 Australian cup of flour is 125g rather than 150g. I’m in Japan so I always use the metric system.
Thank you for your recipes by the way!
Hi Nagi, The feet and hands burnt a little but ok for me to eat. My oven runs very hot so will try a lower heat.
I freaked out at this message thinking it was YOUR hands and feet that got burnt, but then I realised you were talking about her gingerbread men! Phew!! 😂
Just tried this recipe today, used a smaller cutter because it’s so hard to find cookie cutters here, ended up being a bit dry and crispy. Will lessen my cook time by a little more next time with my leftover dough. Really yummy though! Can’t stop with just one. Thanks, perfect for the holidays!
I purchased Blue Label Molasses to make these today but in fine print on the side I’ve now found it says black strap 😫
Do you think if I mix half of this with golden syrup to kinda even it out? 😅😅
Hi Kim! Yes that sounds like a solution, I would do that myself (if I thought of it!) N x
So yummy that I can’t stop eating 😆 I ended up resting the dough for 3 days as I got busy but it turned out great. Only used half of it and froze the rest. I found it easier to use a silicon sheet on the bottom instead of baking sheet to roll the dough as it keeps sliding. I tried your icing as well and it yielded enough for many batches so I packed them in the small Glad bags and froze them too! Your idea of using a sandwich bag as a piping bag was excellent!! Thanks Nagi😘
Why can’t we use blackstrap molasses?
Hi Deniz. Blackstrap has a really strong flavour that dominates everything else in the cookie and which many people find unpleasant. Treacle or molasses are better options. But if you really love the taste of blackstrap then it will work! N x
Hi Nagi, all I had was blackstrap, carob extract and maple syrup. I ended up mixing 3/4 carob extract with 1/4 maple syrup. Thankfully, it turned out beautifully. Another perfect recipe, thank you!
Which brand molasses and where can I buy it? Where can I buy the man mold?
Hello Nagi
Can this dough work for a gingerbread house?
Hi Emilio, you can use it for a gingerbread house, I like to make it slightly thinner and cook a further 3 minutes to dry it out and make it crunchy. N x
What do I do if my dough is super sticky?
Hi Caitlin, yes gingerbread dough is notoriously sticky – that’s why it needs to be refrigerated before use 🙂 N x
Great recipe Nagi, just made these yesterday and they’re delicious
I baked my cookies for 10mins, I think my oven runs a bit warmer as some were burnt in the first batch haha
Thank you for sharing x
Hi Nagi. Love your recipes, my children Thank You.
My elderly neighbour taught me how to crisp up my ginger bread men. When you have finished baking and the oven has cooled a little bit – pop them back in – leaving the door open. Works a charm.
Hi Navi question can you make these cookies into a gingerbread house dough?
its 1.25am why are you looking a gingerbread