Chocolate Gingerbread Men

By barbsjustagirl

These cookies are so full of flavor and I like how they had just a nice amount of softness and chewiness to them.  No need to add a lot of extra frosting to them. Just a few buttons to dress him up a bit should do the trick.  Plus…it is a lot faster that way.

Take these to your next holiday party or gobble them up with a tall glass of cold milk! These cookies are great without a lot of frills.

Ingredients

• 2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate baking bar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
• 2 tablespoons ground ginger
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 large egg

Details

Servings 1
Preparation time 10mins
Cooking time 80mins
Adapted from theidearoom.net

Preparation

Step 1

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, brown sugar, white sugar, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the molasses, egg, and melted chocolate and continue beating on medium speed for an additional 2 minutes. On low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Transfer the dough to a flat surface and flatten into a disk. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least hour, or up to 5 days.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Divide the chilled dough into four equal quarters, leaving three quarters in the refrigerator. Lightly flour a flat work surface and roll out one piece of dough to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. Using a small (2 to 2 1/2 –inch) gingerbread man or woman cookie cutter, cut out as many cookies as possible. Place the cookies on the prepared cookie sheets, about 1 inch apart. Gather all the dough scraps into a ball and place in the refrigerator.

Take out another quarter of the dough, and continue rolling out the dough and cutting cookies until all the dough has been used. Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes until slightly raised. Using a spatula, remove the cookies from the cookie sheets, transferring to a wire rack to cool.