One of the thing I remember from baking Christmas cookies with my mom, were making gingerbread men, women or pretty much all kinds of shapes. And the part where we got to decorate them with colorful icing. But I never thought to be this creative, turning the gingerbread man upside down, making a reindeer.

Makes a lot.

INGREDIENTS:

125 g butter
200 g dark syrup or molasses
150 g brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
3 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground all-spice
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 egg
500 g all-purpose flour

Decorating:

150 g confectionary (powdered) sugar
1 egg white
a spinkle og cream of tartar
food coloring

DIRECTIONS:

Melt butter, syrup/molasses and brown sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat, and stir in baking soda and spices. Let the syrup cool down for a bit, before you add egg and flour.

Add syrup to a stand mixer, and mix in the egg and flour and keep mixing until you have a smooth and shiny dough.

Let the dough rest in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, before rolling out.

Preheat the oven to 355 ℉ (180℃).

Roll out the dough on a floured surface. The dough needs to be about 0.1-0.2-inch (3-5 mm) thick. Cut out the small gingerbread men and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake the cookies for about 5 minutes, and let them cool completely on a wire rack.

Royal Icing:

Put all the ingredients in the bowl of the stand mixer. Whip the icing for 2 minutes, until it has an uniform consistency and is crisp white color. It starts off with a grayish hue.

Decoration:

Decorate the gingerbread men upside down like a reindeer with brown and white icing, red mini m&m's for the nose.