A late visit from the Gingerbread man...

My friend sent me this cute cookie in the mail for Christmas! It was such a cute and creative gift and I loved the way she decorated it. It is too bad that this gingerbread man didn't last long even though it was giant! Along with the cookie she sent the recipe for it. Here it is and if you are still in the mood to make gingerbread try it out because it is a really good recipe, so good that theh title of the cookies is "The Best Gingerbread Cookies". Let me know if you try them out I would love to hear what you think!

I think it took around 10 minutes for a few of us to eat
this giant gingerbread man!

3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fershly milled black pepper
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2/3 cup unsulfured molasses
1 large egg

Position the racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven adn preheat to 350 degrees F.
Sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, allsice, cloves, salt and pepper thtough a wire sieve into a medium bowl. Set aside.

In a large bowl, using a hand held electric mixer at high speed, beat the butter and shorteing until well combined, about 1 minute. Add the brown sugar and beat until the mixture is light and texture and color, about 2 minutes. Beat the molasses and egg. Using a woodend spoon, gradually mix in the flour mixture to make a stiff dough. Divide the dough into two thick disks and wrap each disk in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until chilled, about 3 hours.

To roll out cookies, work one disk at a time, keeping the other disk refrigerated. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let stand at room temperature until just warm enough to roll out without cracking, about 10 minutes. Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface and sprinkle the top of the dough with flour. Roll out the dough 1/8 inch thick, being sure that the dough isn't sticking to the work surface. For soften cookies, roll out slightly thicker. Using cookie cutters, cut out the cookies and transfer to nonstick cookie sheets, placing the cookies 1 inch apart. Gently knead the scraps together and form into another disk. Wrap and chill for 5 minutes before rolling out again to cut out more cookies.
Bake, switching the positions of the cookies from top to bottom and back to front halfway through baking, until the edges of the cookiest are set and crisp, 10-12 minutes. Cool on sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire cake racks to cool completely. Decorate with royal icing.