Gingerbread Men

During the Christmas holidays, I've noticed there's way too many regular cookies and not enough gingerbread men lately. Years ago, I would see gingerbread men at every Christmas party. If I didn't see them on a cookie tray, they were usually hanging around a Christmas tree. Today, where have all the gingerbread men gone? So I did a Google search.

To my surprise, I found a lot of great gingerbread men recipes in cyberspace. The best web site I liked was Allrecipes. This web site shows a picture along with the recipe (my kind of site). Also, Allrecipes gives you great Christmas food gift ideas. What more can you ask for.

I bookmarked the following recipe on my browser:

Eileen's Spicy Gingerbread Men
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg yolk
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

DIRECTIONS:

In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar until smooth. Stir in molasses and egg yolk. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg; blend into the molasses mixture until smooth. Cover, and chill for at least one hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until firm. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks. Frost or decorate when cool.