Gingerbread Man Cookies

(Vegan, Nut Free, Gluten Free)

Christmas baking wouldn't seem complete without a batch of these cute Gingerbread Men. They are fragrant with molasses and ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves; the amounts of which can be adjusted to suit your own individual taste. If you like your Gingerbread Men on the soft side, bake them a little less, as the longer they bake the harder they will become. There are a few ways to decorate your Gingerbread Men; one is to press raisins into the dough before baking, or you can frost the baked and cooled cookies with confectioners' frosting and stick candys on as buttons and eyes.

Ingredients:

145g vegan butter (I like Earth Balance)

160g light brown sugar

200g molasses

437g London Blend

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp allspice

½ tsp cloves

Preparation:

In the bowl of your stand mixer witht he paddle attachment, cream together the butter, sugar, and molasses.

In a seperate bowl, thoroughly mix together the London Blend, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice and cloves, then add them to the butter mixture and mix together for 3-5 minutes, until all ingredinets are evenly combined.

Pre-heat the oven to 360 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough on a surface floured with the London Blend to about 1/8 inch thickness. Dip your gingerbread man cookie cutters into the flour, and cut out the gingerbread men from your rolled out dough. Place each cookie on your baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie. Bake cookies for about 8 minutes. Allow to cool and frost cookies as desired.