today we're making gingerbread people
there are men ladies children and you
could even have animals if you want to
super easy really delightful and
delicious let's get started
starting off with three cups of
all-purpose flour three cups is three
hundred and sixty grams in case you're
wondering so just a little bit more
perfect okay now we're gonna add our
spices and get this really gingery so I
have a quarter teaspoon of nutmeg a
teaspoon of cinnamon and I have two
teaspoons of ground ginger but if you're
worried about the bite cut it in half
use less you can't use none men because
then you can't call them gingerbread
cookies 1/4 teaspoon of salt and baking
soda let's talk about this for a second
because I'm gonna warn you your
gingerbread men are gonna be a little
bit rubenesque they're gonna puff up so
if you want that nice pillowy
consistency for Gingerbread that's fresh
out of the oven a little bit of
leavening agent helps but if you want
them to be like more almost sugar
cookies you're gonna skip this like
chill chill chill chill chill cut down
the molasses and they'll be a bit more
spelt one teaspoon of baking soda and
you go sift this together and then we're
gonna give it a whisk and and we're
gonna set it aside this is why you want
to sift by the way because you'll end up
with these giant granules or like little
boulders of ginger otherwise and that's
gonna be a spicy surprise although it
might teach your kid a lesson
whisk Eliska whisk and set aside now
we're creaming 3/4 of a cup of unsalted
butter at room temperature add that in
there with a paddle attachment mind you
don't cream it with your hands get this
nice and move energy
now we're adding in 3/4 of a cup of
firmly packed brown sugar I'm using
light brown sugar you could use dark
brown sugar if you like toss it in there
okay you want this to get nice and light
and fluffy so it'll take a second
and you're gonna want to scrape the bowl
down alright so looks pretty fluffy to
me I'm gonna add in one teaspoon of
vanilla extract this is optional though
I'm gonna be real vanilla kind of gets
lost among the other flavors there's a
lot going on these cookies so add that
in and then at the half cup of molasses
so gross on its own but in recipes much
better
scrape the bull down again there's a lot
of layers happening add one egg in
alright
now everything's incorporated it's time
to add our dry ingredients in here just
gradually pour it in congratulate not
all at the same time get your clean
hands gonna scrape that pull down again
the video should be called scraping the
bowl down alright so now we're gonna
take this monster bit of gingerbread
dough plop it into a sealable plastic
bag just for ease of use set that aside
you can either press it out with your
hands or roll it out and we're going to
put this into the fridge overnight yes
overnight or for at least four hours
trust me it's one of those recipes where
it kind of has to happen into the fridge
you go I have a batch of dough that
chilled overnight and now we're gonna
take it out this stuff is sticky gooey
wet mess I'm just warning you it is not
like my nose spread sugar cookies which
you can click up here for if you want to
shave to be nice and perfect go for that
recipe this is a delicious spiced
concoction and fluff this up a bit it
spreads out but it's gingerbread it's
not really way around it okay I'm gonna
cut this open it's flour our surface a
bit it smells really good
so gingery sprinkle some more flour on
top I'm telling you it's gonna get messy
ahead of time
I'm gonna make sure it's nice and
floured now we're gonna roll this out
make sure you move it around as you roll
it out too don't think everything's
gonna be okay if you don't because it's
not a little dusting it's like
gingerbread pizza dough I have a
selection of gingerbread men this guy is
my favorite even though he's pretty big
so just start off by cutting it out and
then you can fill in the spaces with the
other smaller gingerbread people as
ploppies directly onto your baking sheet
the excess dough it can get rear old you
don't have to chill this overnight but
it helps be very ginger with these
gingerbread men I love being a dad so I
can say all of this stuff and the dough
is starting to warm up so work quickly
peeps now have a lot of scraps here so
you have couple options you can get
smaller cookie cutter shapes and cut out
some you know stars a little Christmas
stockings whatever you'd like also I
find from personal experience that you
end up like kind of trying to eat pick
these up too quickly and they start
breaking you really have to let them sit
for a while to kind of cure before
otherwise it looks like snap the head
off you'll be sad or roll it up make the
whole batch right now I guarantee you
will definitely be snacking these guys
are gonna go into the oven at 350 for
about 10 minutes
little puffing a little spreading these
guys are too close I'm going to move
them around before they go into the oven
and they'll be totally set okay so I was
about to roll out the rest of this dough
that I kind of clumped together my
extras but look at this it is so liquidy
already you really have to work quickly
this has to be chilled again unless you
don't care about the shapes you wanna
make little gingerbread groups which is
totally fine they'll still be delicious
but for me
cover it back up into the fridge and let
it chill cut shapes later I want to have
my gingerbread people holding on to
something or at least two of them so I'm
gonna take sheet of tinfoil crumple it
up nice and tight and then just push it
together have it be roughly the same
size as my peppermint candy so I will
bake the gingerbread person did you rip
man holding on to this ball of tinfoil
like this and then once it comes right
out of the oven I'm gonna do an Indiana
Jones style swap and it'll Harden with
the arms holding the candy might it
break yes it might so be careful and
make extra while those gingerbread men
are in the oven I'm gonna make a very
small batch of royal icing up I usually
don't use royal icing I am NOT a cookie
artist I'm adding a cup and a half of
confectioner sugar into a bowl they
should probably a larger bowl but there
you go a couple dashes of cream of
tartar just whisk that up a bit
oh I should definitely use an electric
mixer let's see how this is in the go
one egg white that's a fresh egg you can
tell because it's really holding it
together the more watery the egg white
the older it is watery egg whites are
good for making macaron by the way let's
start mixing it up it's kind of like
making a glaze basically but just with
an egg white it's gonna be kind of
annoying because it'll be like clump
clump clump clump and it'll magically
turn into a glaze and yes there will be
mess involved you can also add more egg
white or more confectioner sugar to
change the consistency you know for
those crazy sugar cookies you have like
the outline consistency and the flooding
consistency the flooding consistency is
always more watery so I'm not doing any
flooding on these just some outline
piping for contrast there we go look at
that breaking my arm over here so be so
much easier in an electric mixer but I
didn't want to do it I don't know why
Wow okay I'm gonna add a little bit of
vanilla in here just a drop you could
also add in any flavoring you want even
some peppermint extract almond extract
is really popular too that's nice okay
so you want to have like a nice dripping
consistency this is not a nice dripping
consistency so we can add an either a
little bit of water or some lemon juice
just enough drop by drop until it's the
right piping consistency this is close
but it's it's not right a little thick
it's a couple drops of water although my
arm is so tired I can't even tell you
there we go that looks nice and silky
you can see it's really pretty
okay if you're not using this
immediately cover it put in a piping bag
because it'll be drive like that when
it's exposed to air so covered
immediately or use immediately those are
your two options I'm transferring my
royal icing into a piping bag fitted
with a small round tip this is a number
three I think a number four would work
even better but I can't find it you can
go all out decorating a gingerbread man
I'm gonna do like a nice one that I
think is acceptable while still having
times like make dinner tonight and
whatever else a happy medium if you will
so remember this is a round tip but if
you don't have any piping tips just snip
the tip off of a pastry bag or even the
little ziplock bag will work too it's
just kind of harder to grip by the way
my gingerbread men came out of the oven
I let them cool until they were set and
you can lift them off easily now they
look nice a little bit plump but you
know so totally recognizable as
gingerbread people we're gonna pipe on
now and we're ready to eat afterwards so
I have all these random sprinkles you
can use whatever you'd like
these are confetti sprinkles my favorite
they're good for like little eyeballs
and buttons if you will I have some
snowflake sprinkles sometimes I buy
stuff on Amazon with like
it's like a nighttime shopping and
sometimes will send me stuff so I have a
lot of various and sundry things in the
pantry to rebut all right now for the
face
little gingerbread man very mediocre
like
sorry we all make sacrifices okay this
is really fun to make you do have to
chill the dough it's honestly better to
make it the night before have it ready
and if you want to make crazy little
shapes that are more intricate freeze
the dough roll it really thin punch the
shapes out and as you can see one of the
hands stuck one of them just flopped to
the side you lazy cookie you had one job
all right
thanks so much for watching hit that
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and happy baking