Ingredients: |
Ingredients: Sift and set aside:
6 cups all- purpose flour,
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tbsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
Mix the following until smooth, then add the above:
1 c shortening, melted and cooled slightly
1 c molasses
1 c packed brown sugar
½ c water
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
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Directions: |
Directions:Directions:
Divide into 3 pieces, 1.5 inches thick, wrap and refrigerate 3 hours. Heat oven to 350º.
Lightly flour surface and roll dough to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters. Place 1 inch apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from the baking sheet and cool on wire racks.
Decorate when cool. |
Personal
Notes: |
Personal
Notes: "FACING MY GIANTS"
Day 12 Gingerbread Men
I try not to eat a lot of sweets.
But I really like a good gingersnap, gingerbread, or gingerbread man cookie. There's just something about ginger and all those other spices....cinnamon.....pinch of cloves....nutmeg. Sigh, Yum.
Gingerbread dates from the 15th century, and making gingerbread men was practiced in the 16th century-the first documented instance of figure shaped gingerbread biscuits was at the court of Elizabeth I of England. She had the gingerbread figures made and presented in the likeness of some of her important guests.
Now I don't know about you, but mine don't always come out perfectly. a good portion of the time, they miss an arm or leg, or the head breaks, or the cookie isn't quite consistently the same thickness. Somehow it doesn't always matter, especially when you're getting tired of working with the dough. Imagine trying to make them 'perfect' to look like someone! No thanks. Just let me eat my broken ones and enjoy my cup of coffee or tea. I love them just the way they are. Don't get me wrong; I won't try to make messy ones, but I'm not going to go nuts if I do. Cause the inside is really what is important.
Isn't it awesome that God loves us just the way we are right now? So often I look in the mirror and find fault with what I see. But He doesn't look at me that way. He doesn't judge us based on popping joints or crazy hair days or how tall or short we are. He doesn't care that we've got a muffin top or we limp a little or maybe we have to stop and catch our breath on things. He looks at our hearts. He looks at who we really are, Inside, where it counts. He sees our hearts. And He knows we long for peace, Joy. Love. Acceptance. Companionship.
That's why He came. To give us the gift of incredible, infinite love, and then eternal life. That's why we celebrate Christmas.
So when I bake my gingerbread men, and I break a leg off - I'm not going to care. Because it reminds me that God loves me just the way I am.
I Samuel 16:7 "For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. "
"IN LOVING MEMORY OF DIANE HOLLISTER"
Diane was a beloved Sunday School Teacher and the author of at least 3 Daily Devotionals & hundreds of Blogs. Her last book " Facing My Giants" was written right up to the time that God choose to take her home after a valiant fight to over come Bone Cancer.
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This recipe for Gingerbread Men Cookie is from