Gingerbread Boys

We ate a lot of cookies and sweets this holiday season but somehow I was still itching to bake cookies so I could decorate them. So this weekend, I decided to make Gingerbread Boys using a NYTimes recipe because their Gingerbread Boy picture was so cute.


We had so much fun decorating them though now we need to figure out what to do with those 50+ cookies. Hopefully people at the office are still up for some more sweets this week.

Ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup molasses
1 cup butter
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon allspice
4 to 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, more for rolling dough
confectioners' sugar
lemon juice

Directions:

• In a saucepan, combine brown sugar, molasses and butter. Place over medium-low heat and stir until the mixture is just melted and smooth. Remove from heat and mix in baking soda and 1/4 cup cold water. Set aside and allow to cool to room temperature.
• Transfer the mixture into a bigger bowl and add egg, salt, baking powder, ginger and cinnamon; stir to mix well. Add 4 cups of flour and mix well, adding up to 1/2 cup more if the dough seems sticky. Shape into a ball, cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, up to 24 hours.
• Preheat oven to 350 F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4-inch thickness, and cut into gingerbread boy shapes using a cookie cutter. Arrange on baking sheets 1-inch apart, and bake until risen and no longer shiny, around 9 to 10 minutes.
• Remove from heat and allow cookies to cool. And then the fun begins... decorate the cookies with icing.
  
• Mix in 1 cup of confectioners' sugar with approximately 2 tablespoons of lemon juice (or water) to create a thick icing paste and use a Ziplock bag with a small cut on the tip as the piping bag.