Gluten Free Gingerbread Men Cookies

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These cookies are a tad soft. Not too soft though, still keeps its crisp bite.  I made 75 of these for our Cub Scouts Christmas party this year.  I was too exhausted and lacked motivation to put the decorations on it so I picked up a can of spray frosting and set it next to to the tray.  Nobody knew they were gluten free and loved the spray frosting idea.  The dough is rather sticky still and it is difficult, once the cookie was pressed into shape, to to remove the shaped cookie safely.  I ended up cutting a cookie and flipping the oiled parchment over a bit so the cookie would fall onto my hand.  Then I safely placed them on the cookie sheet. 

Make them up, take some spray cans of frosting with you to decorate them and have a cookie decorating party.  The kids will LOVE it! Happy baking!

2 1/2 cups Gluten Free Flour Blend
1 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
2 teaspoons Ginger

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Cream of Tartar

1/2 cup (1 stick) Butter, room temperature

1 cup Brown Sugar

1/4 cup Molasses

1 Egg
1 teaspoon Vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line baking sheets with Parchment Paper.
Line Counters with Parchment Paper sprayed with Olive Oil.

• Mix dry ingredients (flour, gum, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, soda and tartar) in small bowl and set aside.
• Beat butter and brown sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add molasses and egg and beat well. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until well mixed. Press dough into a thick flat disk. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for an hour.  Sometimes I skip this step, its harder to work with the dough but still do able.
• Roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness on lightly oiled parchment paper.  An oiled marble rolling pin works well here.
• Cut into gingerbread men shapes with 5-inch cookie cutter.
• Place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets.
• Bake 9 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 as desired.
• Store cookies in airtight container up to 5 days.

Use Royal Icing Recipe here to decorate.

Notes:

1. Make sure your butter is ROOM temperature. Otherwise the resulting chunks of butter will cause a dimpled surface.
2. Make sure your dough is mixed throughly to incorporate all ingredients.
3. Dough is extremely sticky to work with. If you are skipping the refrigeration part (helps with stickiness of dough) you will either have to use lots of flour on your surface and rolling pin or use an oiled piece of wax paper to roll your dough out on.