Best Gingerbread Recipe You'll Ever Find

Every year for as long as I can remember I have made gingerbread men.  I love these cute little guys!
And they make great gifts for friends and neighbors.

After years of perfecting this recipe to make a soft gingerbread men, as opposed to a crunchy bitter ones, I thought I'd share it with you!

So let's start my whisking together your dry ingredients.  Flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves all go into a bowl and you whisk it away.

Then in a kitchen aid (or use an electric mixer) mix together the butter and brown sugar until it's fluffy looking like this.

Before we move on let's talk about molasses. 

That thick kind of nasty looking stuff.

Yeah that... well there are many types of molasses, light, dark, blackstrap.

Don't get blackstrap and don't get light.

Dark is the proper choice for this recipe.

Now that we are clear on that, add the molasses, water and egg and mix it up. 

It kind of looks a little nasty, huh?

But you will soon learn the dough of this stuff ain't pretty.

Now all at once dump the flour mixture into the gross looking mixture and beat until it's combined.

Scrape the sides of the bowl as necessary.

And don't turn your mixture on to high because you might end up in a flour shower.... don't ask me how I know that.

Now keep mixing into the dough starts to form a sticky ball and then divide it into 3 different balls and wrap in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours or for up to 2 days.

(we'll keep this picture small because it's looks kind of nasty... but it tastes good.  Promise)

Now comes the fun part.

Roll it out and start cutting with cookie cutters.

Make sure to use plenty of flour.  This dough has a tendency to stick.

Then call gangster daughter who likes to wear her hat side ways and let her help cut.

Cook these little guys in a 350 degree oven for 8 minutes.  

Pull them add and immediately add chocolate chips and then pull them off the baking sheet.

You don't want them to get crunchy so pull them off that hot sheet ASAP.

Continue this process until you have used up all of your dough.

Check out your cute little army!!!  :)

Now this trick my mom taught me and it is absolutely necessary for this army.

Once cooled, put your men in a big ol tupperware and layer it with wax paper and then.....

add 2 pieces of bread to the top.

Weird right?

But it works.

The cookies take the moisture of the bread and leaves the poor bread all cracker like, while the army ends up all soft and delicious.

Well there you go!

Hope you enjoy!!!!