Cakespy: Gingerbread Mad Men Recipe

• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 1/2 cups dark molasses
• 2/3 cup cold water
• 5 1/2 cups flour (the original recipe called for 7 cups, but around 5 1/2 my mixer was clearly protesting so I left it at that--and they seemed fine)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (original recipe calls for 2 teaspoons)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon cloves
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Mix butter, sugar, and molasses thoroughly. Stir in water and mix until incorporated (it will be wet and strangely lumpy, but this goes away when you add the flour).
2. Sift together the flour and other remaining dry ingredients in a bowl. Stir into the wet mix a little at a time until fully incorporated. The mixture will be extremely thick. Form into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap; let chill for at least two hours.
3. Heat the oven to 350u0b0F. Roll dough 1/4 inch thick on a (very lightly) floured board. Using a gingerbread man cookie cutter, cut the cookies.
4. Make slight variations by hand to personalize them for
5. characters.
6. Gently shape the legs to be longer and flatter at the end, and stretch the arms a little bit.
7. Be sure to flatten the fat middle part of the gingerbread men-after all, they are all shapely ladies. For Gingerbread Joan in particular, you might want to add a little beehive hairdo.
8. If desired, using a knife, cut out shapes for some
9. -style accessories: martini glasses, collins glasses, hats or briefcases, a cloud shape for a puff of cigarette smoke. Be sure to bake these smaller pieces on a separate tray because they won't need to bake as long.
10. Bake the large cookies for 10 to 12 minutes or until no imprint remains when touched lightly; bake the small accessory cookies for about 6 to 7 minutes. Let them cool completely before icing them.

butter, brown sugar, dark molasses, cold water, flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cloves, cinnamon

Taken from www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/12/cakespy-gingerbread-mad-men-cookies-recipe.html (may not work)