I spent my afternoon making Mini Gingerbread Men with Cream Cheese Icing and raced against the clock to get a photo of them with the dwindling natural afternoon light. I should have read the original recipe more thoroughly and realized that the dough needed to chill for three hours. Not a great thing to read on the shortest day of the year! Fortunately, I was able to shave a little time of chilling the dough by freezing it for a bit instead. Before the sun set for the day, the crazy rain and wind subsided and the sun came out!
While I was deciding on what my last cookie contribution for our 12 Days of Christmas Cookies, I pulled out my cookie cutters for some inspiration. I found a mini gingerbread cut-out that was just too cute to pass up. Since the cookies themselves are pretty tiny, I decided to add a layer cream cheese icing between two cookies. You can also use the icing to pipe details onto each gingerbread or just leave them plain.
- ½ cup shortening
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ½ cup molasses
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 2 and ½ cups flowers
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 4 oz. cream cheese
- ½ tsp vanilla
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- To make the gingerbread men, mix shortening with an electric mixer for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar, baking powder, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves. Mix until combined. Then, beat in molasses, egg, and the vinegar until mixed well. Add the flour in batches. Divide dough in half. Wrap each half in plastic wrap and allow to chill in the fridge for 3 hours or the freezer for 45 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375 F. Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out one cookie dough half on a lightly floured surface until about ⅛" thick. Use a small gingerbread cookie cutter to cut-out cookies. Place on baking sheet.
- Bake for 5 to 6 minutes or until set. Cool on cookie sheet for a minute and transfer to a wire rack to allow cookies to cool.
- To make the cream cheese icing, mix the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer. Add in the vanilla and combine. Add in the powdered sugar ½ cup at a time to desired consistency.
- Spread a layer of the cream cheese icing on the bottom of a gingerbread cookie and stick another cookie to it. Repeat until all cookies have been paired up. Put remaining icing in a piping bag and ice details on each gingerbread man cookie if desired.
