These gingerbread men cookies are great fun to make with children—they can get creative and dress up the gingerbread men with icing, different types of melted chocolate, nuts, or dried fruit. For a less dressy person, just stick to white chocolate or even a simple icing.–Isidora Popovic
LC Unfussiest and Subtlest Gingerbread Cookies Ever! Note
Are these cookies cute or what?! They’re also the easiest, fastest, cheapest, unfussiest gingerbread men cookies we’ve ever encountered, coming together in minutes from a minimum of ingredients–all pantry staples. They’re also the subtlest gingerbread men we’ve tasted in terms of spice, though they’re still quite, quite nice–almost more a honeyed ginger cookie than a traditional gingerbread cookie. So much so that you could get by with making these all year round, which is good, because after your first batch, we think you’ll be craving them frequently and with fervor.
Gingerbread Men Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the work surface
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger, or more to taste (up to 3 teaspoons is safe if you like a truly gingery gingerbread)
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
- 3 tablespoons sugar (granulated or light brown sugar)
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon cold water
- Royal icing, melted chocolate, nuts, candied ginger, and dried fruit
Directions
- 1. To make the gingerbread people cookies, heat the oven to 325°F (163°C).
- 2. Place the flour, baking powder, ginger, butter, sugar, and honey in a food processor and pulse until you get crumbs. Add the water and mix until a ball of dough forms.
- 3. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and roll out with a rolling pin until about ¼ inch thick. Cut out people with cutters dipped in flour and place them on the baking sheet.
- 4. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes if using large cookie cutters, less time if using small cutters. Let the gingerbread people cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet prior to transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- 5. To decorate, pipe icing or melted chocolate onto the gingerbread people as clothes, using a pastry bag or a resealable plastic bag with one corner snipped off. You can also accessorize the gingerbread people with chopped nuts, candied ginger, dried fruit, whatever you please. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
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Do you think I could sub equal amounts of corn (or other) syrup? Can’t eat honey, but I love a ginger cookie without the heavy spices, and so easy to make! Thanks!
Hi Ruthie, although I haven’t tried substituting in this particular recipe, you can usually exchange honey for corn syrup, molasses, golden syrup or even agave nectar. Let us know how they turned out!
Why no weights with this recipe? Weights are one of the reasons I come back to this website again and again.
Hello, Mara. I’m so happy you come to the site for the weight measures. It’s something we instituted a few years ago, and it’s terrifically popular. This recipe was posted before that time, and we’re slowly working backwards so that all our recipes will have metric and weight. Please be patient! It’s on our list.