I have a very precious Gingerbread recipe. I often made Gingerbread Men with my children when they were young. But I don’t remember when was the last time. Today I made the proper Gingerbread for the first time in many years, but I couldn’t bother cutting it out into shapes. I rolled the dough into balls and made cookies. As I ate some of them that tasted the same as the Gingerbread Men we used to make, I thought about the days when my children were young, a small kitchen in the house we were living in, and how brilliantly my children decorated the Gingerbread Men. Gingerbread brings back lots of memories.

Makes

30 Cookies

Ingredients

125g Butter *softened
1/2 cup Dark Brown Sugar OR Brown Sugar *lightly packed
1/4 cup Molasses
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 Egg
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 cups Self-Raising Flour *plus extra
2 teaspoons Ground Ginger
1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

Optional Icing
1/2 cup Icing Sugar
2 to 3 teaspoons Milk

Method
  1. Beat Butter and Sugar in a large bowl until creamy. Add Molasses, Salt, Egg and Vanilla, and beat until well combined.
  2. Stir in Self-Raising Flour, Ginger and Cinnamon, mix well, and knead until smooth. If it is too soft, you can add extra 1-2 tablespoons Flour. The dough is probably too soft to roll. Cool in the fridge until firm enough to roll into balls.
  3. Preheat oven to 180℃. Line 2 baking trays (OR 1 large baking tray) with baking paper.
  4. Roll the dough into 3cm balls (I made 30 balls today) and place on the prepared tray(s). Bake for 15 minutes or until cooked through. Transfer to a wire rack and cool.

  5. To make Icing for decoration, mix Icing Sugar and Milk until smooth. Place it in a piping bag or tough plastic bag, and pipe it out on the cooled Cookies.