For some, gingerbread men are a culinary symbol of Catholic Christmas, with which they even decorate Christmas trees, someone knows this character from the cartoon "Shrek", and even in the Guinness Book of Records the gingerbread men left their mark. And also the gingerbread man is the brother of our closer Kolobok. Gingerbread men are delicious, funny, interesting. They can be eaten or saved as a souvenir. They will not leave anyone indifferent and therefore it is worth preparing them, which we will do today!

For the test:

• Eggs 2 pcs.
• Liquid honey (molasses) 1 glass
• Flour (wheat, pancake) 5 cups
• Butter (margarine for baking) 1 cup
• Sugar 1 glass
• Cocoa (instant coffee) 1 table. spoon
• Salt 0.5 tsp spoons
• Baking soda 3 tsp spoons
• Ground ginger 2 tsp spoons
• Ground cinnamon 2 tsp spoons
• Cloves (powder) 1 tsp spoon

For glaze:

• Egg white 1 pc.
• Lemon juice 2 table. spoons
• Powdered sugar 250 g

Cooking gingerbread men:

Step 1: Cooking a template for gingerbread men.

It will be more convenient and easier to cut people out of dough if you already have a template ready. So the little men will turn out to be the same, and you will spend much less effort. It is very simple to make a template - we cut out a figure of a man from a thick sheet of paper with scissors. You can even print the suggested photo and make a template from it. We put the finished template aside and move on.

Step 2: Cooking dough for gingerbread men.

There are a lot of dough preparation options, but the option I have proposed has already been checked and tested more than once. In a deep saucepan for the dough, mix the butter, salt, baking soda and spices - ginger, cloves and cinnamon. Add sugar and liquid honey and, using a mixer, begin to beat into a homogeneous mass.

Dissolve cocoa or coffee with 4 tablespoons of boiling water, let it cool and then pour it into the future dough, adding eggs. Add 3 cups flour and continue whisking. Add the remaining flour and start kneading the dough with your hands. Try not to knead the dough for too long. It should turn out to be quite dense, wrap it in cling film and put it in the refrigerator. It is better to remove it overnight, and continue cooking in the morning, but try to hold it for at least 4-5 hours.

Step 3: Forming gingerbread men.

When the dough is infused, we take it out of the refrigerator, remove the film and spread it on the rolling surface. We need to roll it into a layer like a regular shortcrust pastry. To prevent the dough from sticking to the table and rolling pin, you need to sprinkle them with flour a little. However, try to minimize the addition of flour while doing this, so as not to spoil the taste of the future cookies.

Using a template, we cut out little men from the rolled dough, which we put on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. We bake cookies in the oven at 160 degrees for about 13-15 minutes. We take the finished cookies out of the oven and leave them on the table to cool.

Step 4: Making icing and decorating gingerbread men.

While the little men are cooling down, we can easily make the glaze - we separate the egg white from the egg and beat it with a mixer into a strong foam. Then add the icing sugar and continue to beat. When you get a homogeneous cream, pour out the lemon juice and mix thoroughly. The glaze is ready! With the help of a confectionery syringe, we apply glaze to the little people, drawing their faces, clothes with buttons and whatever you want.

When all the little people are decorated, it is necessary to let the glaze harden - you can dry the cookies in the oven, or you can simply leave them at room temperature for several hours, or better all night.

Step 5: Serving gingerbread men.

You can crunch gingerbread men just like that, or you can combine it with tea, milk, cocoa or coffee. Delight the children, surprise the guests - this is the perfect solution for a dessert on the New Year's table. Bon Appetit!

• You can change some ingredients, such as butter for vegetable oil, baking soda for baking powder. But the main ingredient - ginger - should be present in any recipe, it is thanks to him that this cookie has such a popular taste.
• You can use regular cookie cutters instead of a cookie cutter.
• If you don't have a pastry syringe, you can replace it with an ordinary culinary bag - cut a corner of a clean plastic bag and squeeze out the icing with it.
• Colored glaze can be obtained using dyes. If the cookie is large, then the colored buttons can be depicted using m & m's.

Gingerbread men - cookies for the New Year and Christmas! Please yourself and your children with the New Year's atmosphere!

New Year and Christmas holidays are not complete without scented themed baked goods. One of the most popular desserts is gingerbread men. For their preparation, aromatic gingerbread dough is used, which is easy to prepare in your kitchen. The fascinating process of painting will interest not only adults, but also children.

How to make gingerbread men

Ingredients:

Wheat flour 400 g

Butter 150 g

Sugar 100 g

Ground ginger 1.5 tsp

Cinnamon 1 tsp

Ground black pepper 0.5 tsp.

Soda 2 tsp

Powdered sugar 150-180 g

Lemon juice 1-1.5 tsp

Chicken protein 1 pc.

Salt 1 pinch

Food colors as desired

Gingerbread men, recipe with photo step by step

Take an ovenproof dish. Add sugar, chopped butter, honey and all the spices to it. Set the container on low heat and heat until all the ingredients are dissolved, including the sugar grains. Stir with a spatula to dissolve the sugar faster.

Remove cookware with melted food from heat and add baking soda. Stir and let sit for 8-10 minutes.

Sift the flour in advance. Pour in small portions with warm ingredients. Stir with a spoon after each addition.

Knead into a soft, plastic dough that does not stick to your hands and board.

Dust the board with a little flour. Roll out the dough into a thin layer 3-4 mm.

Take gingerbread man molds or other Christmas figurines. Cut out the shapes you want.

Transfer to a baking sheet with parchment paper a short distance apart. Preheat the stove to 180 degrees. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

Cool the finished gingerbread. From this amount of dough, 4 trays were obtained.

Now that the gingerbread cookies have cooled down, it's time to make the icing. This recipe uses protein. Add the protein to a clean, deep bowl. Sprinkle in a pinch of salt. Beat with a whisk or mixer until frothy.

Pour in the sifted powder in portions. Beat with a mixer for 2-3 minutes until smooth.

Pour in lemon juice. Whisk again.

If you want to use a multi-colored frosting, divide small portions of the white frosting into plates and add the desired color to each plate. Mix well.

Take pastry bags. Distribute each color separately.

Make a small hole and paint the little people as you like. Leave it on for a few hours to dry the frosting.

This sweet creature evokes tenderness: ruddy cheeks, glazed eyes, elegant buttons. He appears on Christmas Day and gives the feeling of a fairy tale. The gingerbread man is a funny creature with the scent of ginger. He can be called an emigrant from Europe and America, who has his own life history.

Who is the "gingerbread man"?

Despite the fact that it is created from natural products, today it is usually used as a decoration. The gingerbread man goes straight from the kitchen to the Christmas tree. Unlike more edible cookies, it is somewhat dry and hard, therefore it does not particularly pretend to be a delicacy.

The gingerbread man is a character in the American fairy tale, which is in many ways similar to the Russian story "Kolobok". According to the plot of a fairy-tale legend, he is sculpted and decorated by his grandparents, from whom he runs away. The main character manages to save himself from a cow, horse, pig, which he is very proud of. However, the cunning red fox lures the ginger mischief into the river, invites him to sit on her nose and safely dines on it. As evidenced by many historical facts, the great-grandfather of the gingerbread man was an authoritative person at the court of Elizabeth I. In the distant sixteenth century, gingerbread figures were created in the court kitchen, which exactly repeated the images of the queen's guests. But ordinary peasants have passed on such a Christmas tradition from generation to generation.

How is the gingerbread man made?

It is very easy to bake gingerbread men to decorate the Christmas tree. It is enough to have flour (4 glasses), butter, sugar, chicken eggs, honey, salt, soda, pepper, ginger and cloves in the house. Flour is mixed with spices, butter - with sugar, honey, eggs are added, the dough is kneaded. After it has stood for a couple of hours in the cold, the layer is rolled out, the little men are cut out and put in the oven for 20 minutes. And then "revive" with glaze (whites, whipped with powdered sugar).

A mold for little men can be made of thick cardboard. Sweet mastic is used for decoration. The idea of ​​a Christmas man turned out to be interesting for producers of games, films, mobile applications. He made his successful debut in a supporting role in the cartoon by Andrew Adamson. The gingerbread hero is mentioned in the lyrics of famous musical groups. And the talented vocalist Melanie Martinez dedicated a Christmas song to him. And today, like centuries ago, a cheerful little man made of dough with ginger pleases people all over the world with his presence at the enchanting holiday of Christmas.

Kaluga region, Borovsky district, Petrovo village

- a bright family holiday, which is celebrated all over the Earth. On this special night of reconciliation, everyone wishes each other well. This is a magical time for gifts, sincere smiles and the fulfillment of desires, and it is also a wonderful occasion to meet with relatives and friends, to remember the joyful moments of the past year. ETNOMIR invites you to plunge into the traditional atmosphere of the holiday.

Guests will enjoy songs and dances, a fun folklore show and traditional folk carols from mummers. And, of course, Christmas dinner!

ETNOMIR loves and honors traditions!

The Man is one of the most classic forms of traditional Christmas cookies. And the Gingerbread Man is one of the symbols of the New Year and Christmas.

In general, Gingerbread Man is a fairy-tale character from an old fairy tale, somewhat similar to our "Kolobok" ...

Once on an ordinary American farm, the hostess baked pies, and her husband worked in the garden. The woman decided to surprise her husband - to make cookies in the shape of a man. She cut out a small figure from a piece of dough, the raisins became eyes, the cherry became the nose, and the lemon peel became a smile. The woman put this figurine on a baking sheet and sent it to the oven.

Time passed, she looked into the oven and was surprised: the Gingerbread Man came to life! He jumped out of the oven and ran into the garden when a woman opened the door of the house to call her husband. The Gingerbread Man ran across the yard. Suddenly a cow was on his way. She smelled the aroma of fresh gingerbread and was about to bite off a piece of the Man, but the farmer and the farmer frightened her off - they themselves were chasing the Gingerbread Man.

But no one got it - he ran as fast as he could. Until I bumped into a dog. And she wanted to swallow him, but did not have time. So the little man ran to the river. How to be here? He gets wet in the water, but you can't stop - behind him is a farmer with a farmer, a cow and a dog.

Then the Fox appeared from the forest. He ran up to the Little Man and invited him to swim to the other side, sitting on his fox's back. The little man jumped on the back of the Fox, and they swam. In the middle of the river, the Man's feet began to get wet. The fox advised him to get over on his head - they say, there is higher.

And now the shore was close, the Fox said that the safest place for the Little Man was on the bow of the Fox. The Gingerbread Man did not hesitate to move to the nose. When the Fox got out of the water, he just tossed the Little Man with his nose ... He opened his wide-toothed mouth and swallowed a delicious gingerbread. And the farmer with the farmer, the cow and the dog silently watched this. They had to leave with nothing. So the cunning Fox deceived everyone.

Classic Gingerbread Cookie Recipe:

Ingredients:
- 0.5 tsp pepper (freshly ground black);
- 1 tsp salt;
- 0.5 tsp ground cloves;
- 1 glass of fine brown sugar;
- 2 tbsp. hot water;
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar;
- 2 eggs;
- 2 tsp soda;
- 5 glasses of wheat flour;
- 200 g butter (room temperature);
- 1 tsp ground ginger;
- 1 glass of honey (or molasses).

Preparation:
1. Mix 5 cups flour, baking soda, salt and spices.
2. In a large bowl, grind the butter and sugar until creamy.
3. Add molasses or honey, eggs to the mixture. Stir until smooth.
4. Add hot water and vinegar, mix well and add a mixture of flour and spices to this mass. The dough should be firm, but at the same time remain pliable.
5. Divide the dough into 2-4 parts, wrap each of them in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.
6. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
7. Roll out the dough on a board, make plates half a centimeter thick or slightly thinner out of it.
8. Cut out the figurines and place them on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.
9. Bake the little men for 15-20 minutes.
10. Finished biscuits can be decorated with protein (white or colored) or chocolate icing, mastic, sugar, nuts, raisins, special decorations for cakes and cookies, etc.

How to cook gingerbread men (video tutorial in English):

How to decorate gingerbread men: