Sprinkle some flour, roll out the dough, cut out the cookies, and bake! We show you how to bake gingerbread man cookies.

Helpful hint: If the cinnamon imperials are bursting during baking, the gingerbread cookies are baking too long or your oven is too hot. See our post on oven hotspots.

And now you have over 3+ dozen 5-inch gingerbread man cookies
for the holidays
from Ginger's Breadboys
purveyors of the best gingerbread cookie kits!

An easy do it yourself Christmas craft.

Next, the icing. Decorating gingerbread man cookies starts with making the royal icing. More kitchen fun and a perfect holiday activity.

These video slideshows are available for guidance
to show you how to make gingerbread man cookies
from the Ginger's Breadboys gingerbread man cookie kits.

As included in the Ginger's Breadboys gingerbread man cookie kit, here is the recipe and instruction card for download.

Here's our recipe for Classic Gingerbread Man Cookies:

Have all ingredients at room temperature. Cream 1 cup shortening and 1 cup granulated sugar. Add 1 large egg. Blend in 1 cup unsulphured molasses. Add 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar. Slowly add Ginger’s Breadboys gingerbread cookie mix. Switch to mixer’s dough hook if you have one (optional). Blend only until flour mixture is incorporated.

Empty dough onto wax paper sheet and knead lightly to form a block. Wrap in wax paper and place in gallon-size plastic food storage bag. Chill for 3 hours—or overnight—in refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 375°. Line baking pan with parchment paper. Flour a cool surface—not wood—and rolling pin. Countertops or marble pastry board works well. Roll baseball-size amount of dough to ¹/ inch thick. (If dough sticks to rolling pin, lightly flour and place wax paper over dough to roll out.) Cut with 5‑inch gingerbread man cookie cutter. Remove excess dough from around cutouts. Move cookies to pan on floured spatula. Leave at least ½ inch between cookies. For eyes, nose, and 3 buttons, press cinnamon imperials into cookies before baking (optional).

Bake 8–9 minutes until cookies are light brown and pillowy. (Bake time estimate is for large 5-inch cookie. Bake less if using smaller cookie cutter.) Ovens vary—if cinnamon imperials burst when baking, oven is too hot, or bake time is too long. Remove from oven and allow to cool on pan ~10 minutes. Refrigerate or store in cool area until ready to decorate. Decorate when completely cool with royal icing. Makes ~39 large (5‑inch) gingerbread man cookies.