Chocolate Gingerbread Men
- Ready In:
- 50mins
- Ingredients:
- 15
- Yields:
-
24 gingerbread men
- Serves:
- 24
ingredients
- 3 1⁄4 cups all-purpose flour, plus
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2⁄3 cup cocoa powder, sifted (preferably natural cocoa powder)
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger (not more than 2 months from purchase)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 2⁄3 cup vegetable shortening
- 1⁄2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 3⁄4 cup unsulphured molasses
- 1⁄8 cup raisins, for garnish
- 1⁄8 cup red-hot candies, for garnish
directions
- Position racks in the top & bottom thirds of the oven, then preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- With shortening (not on ingredient list) to grease several large baking sheets, then set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, baking powder & cloves until spices & coca are evenly distributed, then set aside.
- In a 2nd large bowl, & using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream shortening & brown sugar until smooth & airy, about 1 minute.
- Beat in egg & then the molasses.
- Turn off mixer & add prepared flour mixture, then AT VERY LOW SPEED beat just until crumbly bits of dough form, but not until the mass begins to cohere into a ball.
- With flour lightly dust a clean, dry work surface as well as your hands.
- Turn dough out & knead just until it forms a smooth mass, about 30 seconds.
- Divide into thirds & cover them with a clean kitchen towel.
- With flour lightly dust the work surface again & roll one of the thirds to a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Flour the dough & a rolling pin only as necessary.
- Use a large gingerbread-man cookie cutter to cut the dough into the desired shapes, then use a metal spatula to transfer them carefully to the prepared baking sheet(s). Gather any scraps, lightly dust again with flour & roll out a 2nd time, creating additional gingerbread men.
- Decorate the cookies with the raisins & red hots, using one for the eyes & the other for the mouths. Additional red hots can be used as buttons on their coats.
- Bake for 4 minutes, then rotate sheets top to bottom & front to back.
- Bake another 4 minutes, or until cookies feel dry but still are a little soft.
- Remove from oven & cool on the baking sheets for 2 minutes before transferring the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.
- Cool the baking sheets for 5 more minutes, then regrease them before baking additional batches, as necessary, OR work with 2 additional baking sheets, preparing them while the others are in the oven.
- Keep no longer than 2 days at room temperature, several more days in the refrigerator, OR up to a month in the freezer.
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Reviews
-
These were terrific! I liked that I didn't need to chill the dough and were easy to roll out. The only change that I did was that I didn't have raisins or the hot candies, and I used about 1 1/4 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice. These are a great simple gingerbread cookie alone! My kids had so much fun helping and it was so easy to prepare!