how to make gingerbread skeletons

I have been wanting to make these little guys for a long time and finally stocked up all the supplies I would need to make gingerbread skeleton men. Just in time for Halloween.

I haven't made gingerbread men since I was a child, so I was a bit afraid to take this recipe on, but nothing is more relaxing to me than baking...and painting..and Taekwondo, just not all at the same time.

What I enjoy especially about this one is that I get to use the icing like paint to decorate the cookies and bonus - I love skulls. This is was an awesome way to make skulls and skeletons on a different medium then I am used to, instead of paper mache, canvas, or clay.

This is what you need to make these adorable cookies:

Gingerbread men: 3/4 cup unsalted butter, 3/4 cup of brown sugar, 3/4 cup of molasses, 1 teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper (optional) 1/4 teaspoon of allspice, 1 large egg (I substituted with egg whites), 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, and 3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour. Icing: Wilton's Icing Writer.

Melt butter, mix in brown sugar, molasses, salt and spices.

Beat in egg. Whisk baking powder and baking soda into flour and then stir with molasses mixture, until all mixed together and looks like below.

Divide the dough in half and wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or longer.

Preheat oven to 350 degree.

After 2 hours bring dough out. Flour board and rolling pin and roll flat. Thinner dough makes crisper cookies, thicker dough makes softer cookies. I made a combination of both. I like crisper cookies and Yanni loves soft cookies.

Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter.

Place cookies on parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake for 8 minutes. Place baked cookies on cooling rack when they get out of oven.

Once cookies are cooled off, warm the icing in the microwave for 5 seconds on high and make sure to shake the icing. If the icing it too hot the icing will pour out, so you want to make sure the icing is warm enough to easily squeeze out, but cool enough for it to have a good consistency to decorate. I recommend practicing a bit. As you can see I went for it without practicing, but as I went along I started understanding the right squeeze and temperature. Wilton's Icing Writer is perfect for a newbie like me that has never decorated a cookie like this before.

With left over dough I made skulls, ghosts and little dogs too.

Enjoy! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful week!