The Gingerbread Man!

In case you were looking for a reason to do a little baking, how about reading enrichment.

Last year, our boy's teacher asked us for a little help with a class project. They were planning on doing a lesson with the book The Gingerbread Man. After reading the book, the kids got to go on a scavenger hunt all around school to find the runaway gingerbread man! It really made the story come to life for the kids. Jack and Jonah still talk about how gingerbread cookies really run away! Bake up a batch and hid them somewhere around your house. Leave clues, notes or eyewitness accounts with other family members. The kids will have so much fun, and be inspired to read!

The cookies Rebecca made were such a hit with the kids, that the teacher asked her to make them again for her class this year! The recipe is from the McCormick spice company. It makes a nice soft cookie that isn't too spicy!

Ingredients:

3 cups flour 1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp. ground ginger 3/4 cup butter softened
1 tsp. cinnamon 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda 1/2 cup molasses
1/4 tsp nutmeg 1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl. Beat butter, sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add molasses, egg and vanilla; beat well. Gradually beat in dry ingredients on low speed until well mixed.press dough into a thick flat disk. Wrap in plastic wrap or waxed paper. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

We like to make 3 disk to make the refrigerating go quicker! (about an hour)

Preheat oven to 350°. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness on a lightly floured work surface. Cut gingerbread men.
Place 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheets. (we like to use parchment paper) Bake 8-10 minutes or until the edges just begin to turn brown. Cool on baking sheets for 1 to 2 minutes. Remove to wire racks. Cool completely.

Decorate cookies as desired. We used a simple royal icing. Normally we would have let the boys decorate the cookies, but since they were for school Mom decorated them.
The hardest part was keeping Dad out of them!

Then you are ready to curl up with a good book and a delicious cookie!