How to Make Gingerbread Men Cookies

In a medium sized bowl, mix together the following:

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 + 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

In a large bowl mix the following:

1/2 cup softened butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup molasses or syrup

1 + 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

You can use an electric whisk or mixer in case the butter is not be soft enough to mix by hand.

Add small amounts of the flour mixture to the wet mixture.

Mix slowly with a wooden spoon until the whole mixture becomes a soft dough.

Be careful using electric equipment for this may splatter flour out of the bowl while mixing.

Divide the dough in half and use plastic wrap to cover each half.

Place both pieces in the refrigerator for two hours or until it gets firm and hard.

Set to 375° F (190° C), or on the gas mark 5

Lightly flour your surface, either a counter top or a cutting board.

Use a floured rolling pin to roll out the dough to either 1/8- or 1/4-inch thick.

Use your cookie cutters on the dough to cut out the shapes.

Place them on your baking sheet.

Leave 1 inch between each cookie in case they expand in the oven.

Recycle the dough by rolling the leftovers and cutting out more shapes.

Remove them from the oven.

Leave them on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack.

If you remove them from the sheet immediately, some body parts may fall off in the process. (If they do, eat them!)

This is always the fun part of making cookies (besides eating them, of course!)

Use different colors of icing, frosting, and sprinkles to create facial and other features.

You can also "glue" other candies such as gumdrops with a dab of frosting on the bottom.