Gingerbread Men Cookies (McCormick's)

By Cindy

Ingredients

• Ingredients
• Serves: Makes 2 dozen or 24 (1 cookie) servings.
• 3 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons McCormick® Ginger, Ground
• 1 teaspoon McCormick® Cinnamon, Ground
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon McCormick® Nutmeg, Ground
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract

Preparation

Step 1

Mix flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg and salt in large bowl. Set aside. Beat butter and brown sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add molasses, egg and vanilla; mix well. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until well mixed. Press dough into a thick flat disk. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness on lightly floured work surface. Cut into gingerbread men shapes with 5-inch cookie cutter. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges of cookies are set and just begin to brown. Cool on baking sheets 1 to 2 minutes. Remove to wire racks; cool completely. Decorate cooled cookies w/royal icing (below) as desired. Store cookies in airtight container up to 5 days.

Royal Icing

1 box (16 ounces) confectioners' sugar, sifted

6 tablespoons warm water

3 tablespoons powdered egg whites

1 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract

McCormick® Assorted Food Colors & Egg Dye

Place confectioners' sugar, water, powdered egg whites and vanilla in large bowl. Beat with electric mixer on high speed 5 to 7 minutes until stiff peaks form and icing is fluffy and glossy.
For each color of icing, place 1/2 cup icing in bowl. Stir in 3 to 4 drops food color until evenly distributed and icing is smooth. Add additional drops food color until icing is of desired color. (Keep remaining icing covered with a damp cloth to prevent drying.).
To ice cookies, place cooling rack on foil-lined baking sheet. Spoon icing onto cookies using a teaspoon. Cookies can also be iced using a new small paintbrush. Place iced cookies on cooling rack to dry.
Use contrasting icing colors to decorate iced cookies, if desired. Place small amount of contrasting icing in small resealable plastic bag. Snip off tiny piece of the corner of the plastic bag. Create design by squeezing contrasting icing onto cookies. Allow iced cookies to dry thoroughly before stacking.