Ronald McDonald House Charities

You’ve been creating masterpieces with gum drops and candy canes, and of course icing. We’ve marveled at them and thanked you for helping us make home a little sweeter for children and families served by RMHC.

While we want you to continue building our sprawling city of RMHC gingerbread houses online, we thought perhaps, you were hungry for a little more. Perhaps you wanted some real gingerbread to go along with the virtual. We heard you. And we’ve got a tried and true (yummy) gingerbread men recipe for you.

Ingredients

• 3 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 and a 1/2 sticks unsalted butter softened
• 1/2 cup dark-brown sugar
• 1 heaping Tbsp ground ginger
• 1 heaping Tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup unsulfured molasses

Lemon Icing

• (roughly) 1 Tbsp whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 3/4 cup powdered sugar

Directions

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and spices. Set aside.

Cream the butter. Add sugar and beat until fluffy. Mix in eggs and molasses. Gradually add the flour mixture; combine on low speed, and when the dough starts to get to thick, work it through with a wooden spoon or a your hands. Divide dough in thirds; wrap each third in plastic. Chill for at least 1 hour or overnight.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cooking sheets with parchment paper. Using a rolling pin, roll dough 1/8 inch thick. Use either a cookie cutter to cut into desired shapes, and place on baking sheets. Add raisins for buttons.

Bake until crisp but not darkened, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Let sit a few minutes and then use a metal spatula to transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Decorate as desired.

Makes 16 5-inch long cookies.

Lemon Icing

Combine ingredients and stir until smooth. If the icing is too runny, add a little more powdered sugar. Use to decorate your cooled cookies. Let sit until icing is set. And enjoy!