This is my son’s third Christmas and this year, I think at 2+, he’s old enough to understand the holiday. Because of this, I thought it would be kind of cool to make holiday cookies with him. I thought gingerbread men would be the ideal cookie because they look like little men and can be easily decorated.
I’ve never actually made Gingerbread men before. My grandmother made gingerbread cookies that were small and round and had sugar sprinkled on top. However, this didn’t require the dough to be rolled out, which in my experience with any cut out sugar cookies can be a bear.
Because I haven’t made these before I had to find a recipe and decided to use the one from McCormicks. One thing I really like about this recipe is the fact that it calls for molasses. This particular ingredient really made me think of home, because my grandmother made the most amazing molasses cookies for us growing up. However, as I feared rolling out the cookie dough was a BIG pain. Twice I managed to get the dough stuck to the board I was rolling and cutting cookies on. Ugh!! I also crowded the cookies on the pan too much which meant I had to pick them apart because they stuck together.
Even with these issues the cookies turned out really awesome. Perhaps their best feature was the fact they turned out soft in texture. I was SO excite for el nino to try them and he thought they looked great. However, when he tasted them it was massive fail. He spit the bite it took out and told me it was yucky and immediately wanted milk to drink. I think he found the molasses flavor unappealing. As a result, I ended up with 3 dozen gingerbread men that only I at my house would eat. Sigh. So I shared the love by passing off 2 dozen to my friends family where they got rave reviews. So all was not lost. Next year we’ll try sugar cookies instead.