Gingerbread Men Recipes and Cooking Instructions for Kids
The delightful tales of the Little Gingerbread Boy and Hansel and Gretel have one tasty theme in common, Gingerbread! The delicious smell and taste of fresh baked gingerbread biscuits is a favourite of many children and adults, and now there is a kid friendly recipe that lets you take charge in the cookie kitchen. You can make some wonderful and delicious gingerbread men all by yourself using this simple recipe.
Your mum and dad, or another adult can be in charge of the actual baking and should be the ones who handle the pans, but everything else is up to you. If you are unsure about measurements or ingredients the adults will help you get everything together and then you can become the Gingerbread Man Chef.
This recipe is easy, quick and you will have fun making them any time of the year, but especially during the holiday season. These special gingerbread men are sweeter and chewier than others and this is why they are so very good to eat. You can create a gingerbread man army or use other cookie cutter shapes to make trees, stars and candy canes.
Ingredients for My Very Own, Famous Gingerbread Men Cookies:
½ cup of shortening
1 large egg
½ cup of dark or light brown sugar
1 package of any instant butterscotch pudding
1 and ½ teaspoons of ginger spice
1 teaspoon of cinnamon spice
½ teaspoon of baking soda
Raisins, candy coated chocolates for baking, small colourful candies, and icing for decorations. You should choose the fun candies that you want to use to decorate the face and body of your gingerbread men. Cinnamon dots, liquorice pieces and other small candy bits are great to use for decorating.
"Cookie cutters" that are shaped like gingerbread men, but you can also use cookie cutters that have other shapes.
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees; this must be done by an adult!
Beat the egg with a whisk or a fork until it is scrambled together very well.
Mix together the butterscotch pudding mix, the brown sugar and the shortening in a large mixing bowl.
When this is mixed together nicely you can the egg to the bowl and then mix everything up again until it is well blended.
Next add the flour, ginger, cinnamon and baking soda to the mixture in the bowl and stir it up once again.
Leave the sticky mix in the bowl, cover it with plastic wrap so that the top of the bowl is sealed, and place it in the refrigerator. If you let this cookie dough mix chill for at least an hour or more, it will become less sticky to work with and be easier to handle.
Fix a space on the counter to work with your dough, this can be a flour dusted rolling board, or wax paper that also has been dusted with flour. The extra flour will help keep the dough from sticking as you work with it, but do not use too much flour.
After the dough has chilled, you can remove the bowl from the refrigerator and scoop the cookie dough out with lightly floured hands or a spoon.
Take a rolling pin and press down on the dough and roll it out until it is in a nice rectangle or square. The dough can be pressed and rolled to almost any thickness you like but most people like these cookies cut when they are about ¼ inch thick.
Grease the biscuit baking sheets with a butter wrapper, a knob of butter, a non stick spray, or use a layer of parchment paper to line the sheets.
Using your cookie cutters you can now begin to cut out the gingerbread man figures.
If you use a little flour or non stick vegetable spray on the edges of the cookie cutters it will make the cookie cutting easier to do. Place the cookies about 2 inches apart as you place them on the sheets.
Before the cookies are placed in the oven by the adult you might want to add the raisins or candy coated chocolates for the eyes, mouth or buttons on some of your cookie shapes.
Always let your mum or dad, or other adults turn the oven on and off and let them put the pans into the oven and take them out. Remember that these are your biscuits and you have done all of the hard work by yourself, but you must let the adults handle all of the pans and take care of the cooking equipment so that the hot pans do not cause any accidents or burns. When you are older you will be able to handle all of these busy cooking duties yourself.
The cookies will bake for 8- 10 minutes at 350 degrees, or until the cookie edges are golden in colour. You can watch the timer and tell your mom or dad when the cooking time is completed so that they can check the cookies and remove them from the oven.
The adult who is helping can then place the biscuits on a wire rack to cool.
When the gingerbread men are cool, it is time to decorate them with the icing and the candies. Use the icing to make fun designs and features and place the candies on top of the icing so they will stay in place.
This is an original news article © The Kids Window
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