Gingerbread Men

It was a snow day today.

NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, beats a snow day.  You can go outside, watch Christmas movies, sleep in, and best of all, BAKE COOKIES.

So that's what I did today.  Make a ton of gingerbread men.  Here is my recipe!

Ingredients:

Cookies:

• 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 and 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• 3 tablespoons applesauce
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons egg whites
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 tsp vanilla

Glaze (from the Chocolate Covered Katie blog):

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons skim milk
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit.
• In a small bowl, combine ingredients 1-7.
• In a large bowl, combine ingredients 8-10 using an electric mixer.
• Add molasses and vanilla.
• Slowly mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients.
• Wrap dough in plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 2 hours.
• Place the dough on a lightly floured surface, then put more flour on top.
• Roll dough out to 1/4 inch thick.
• Cut out cookies with cookie cutters.
• Put cookies 1 and 1/2 inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
• Bake for 7 minutes.
• Cover with the glaze or other icing!

Yummy!  These cookies are so good I can't even talk about it.  And don't even get me started on the glaze!