Sugar and spice and everything nice – that’s what gingerbread men are made of!

Though associated with Christmas, we think these little guys are great year-round, so we wanted to share a gingerbread man cookie recipe that you can return to time and time again! Fairly easy and 100% fun, baking gingerbread is an excellent activity for the whole family. While the decorating process can get messy if your kiddos are on the younger side, there’s still no better way to express oneself than through edible art! It’s making memories you can taste.

That being said, I always feel a little guilty biting the head off of a gingerbread man. They’re just so cute! The candy eyes seem to plead with me even as the upturned, frosted mouth implores me to think of friendship over food. Thankfully, gingerbread men aren’t actually sentient… Right?

While the intelligence of gingerbread men is almost certainly nil, there is a kind of magic in baking, as seen in the whimsical novel A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher. If you’re looking for the best stay-at-home evening ever, then allow me to recommend this ultimate combination of cozy read and culinary delights!

Bringing Gingerbread Men To Life

While gingerbread men haven’t been around quite as long as mankind itself, they do have a long and surprisingly prestigious history at least if the legends are to be believed.

The First Gingerbread Men (Probably)

Gingerbread originated in Europe, with early recipes calling for ground almonds, stale breadcrumbs, rosewater, sugar, and – of course – ginger. The English eventually updated this recipe to include eggs, sweeteners, and flour instead of breadcrumbs. (I promise the recipe below also calls for flour rather than stale bread!)

However, the cookie dough wasn’t formed into little men until the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. In fact, Her Majesty is the one credited with the creation of gingerbread men! In order to impress visiting dignitaries, she presented them with cookies baked in their own likeness.

As their popularity increased, these baked goods not only served as a work of art, being carved into symbols of religion and royalty, but also as a token of love when gifted to one another. After all, there’s no better way to say “I love you” than with a big batch of freshly baked cookies!

Making Your Own

Whipping up a batch of your own cookies is a piece of cake. Whether you’re sending a message of “I love you” to your family, friends, or yourself, Christmas gingerbread men make the best delivery men!

Since the instructions are down below, I won’t bore you by going over them here, but I will give you some quick cookie-baking tips to make your batch the best it can be!

1. Bring butter to room temperature before mixing. It will still be cool to the touch but indent easily if pressed upon. About an hour out of the fridge will do the trick!
2. Because ovens have hot spots, it’s best to bake one batch at a time, if possible.
3. The edges of the cookie, not the kitchen timer, will truly let you know if they’re done! Once they begin to brown, you’ve reached perfection.
4. Dust your rolling pin with flour – not just the counter or cutting board!
5. Have fun and be creative! You can use whatever cookie-cutter shapes you want. Go crazy and make gingerbread cats with pull-apart licorice whiskers!

Pro tip: candy eyeballs exist and make for hilarious gingerbread faces.

The Magic of Baking

While you’re waiting for your cookies to bake, I recommend curling up with a good book. Namely, A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking.

Quirky, cozy, and relevant, I devoured this novel almost as quickly as a cookie. In fact, I’ve read it twice, and that gives it a leg up on cookies, which you can only eat once.

This whimsical story follows 14-year-old Mona, who possesses magic that only works on baked goods. While Mona doesn’t find her strain of magic particularly helpful, her family’s bakery does have the best sourdough in town, and people seem to enjoy watching gingerbread men dance.

However, when an assassin begins targeting magic folk, the city is suddenly without its best wizards to defend against an enemy attack. Mona’s baking magic may be the only thing that can save the city – if the assassin doesn’t catch her first.

I absolutely adore T. Kingfisher’s narration from Mona’s perspective. It’s witty, poignant, and brimming with baking metaphors. The novel abounds with loveable characters like Mona’s familiars – Bob, the sentient sourdough starter, and an unnamed gingerbread man who is always riding on her shoulder, tugging on her hair, or even wiping a tear from her cheek.

With “Siege. Sorcery. Sourdough.” as its tagline, you know you’re in for some laughs. But A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking is also surprisingly moving, exploring the concept of what it really means to be a hero and the grief that accompanies such a title. It’s also a lovely commentary on how simple things, like baking, are sometimes the most powerful.

A young adult fantasy novel, A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking is highly readable, no matter your age, and is best enjoyed with a plate of gingerbread men – provided they aren’t dancing.

Print

I hope you enjoy baking your own gingerbread men this season! And remember, you don’t have to limit it to Christmas – with a little red, white, and blue frosting, we can make them a Fourth of July tradition, too!

And don’t forget to add A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking to your TBR. The storytelling is both spell-binding and scrumptious!

Let us know how your cookies turn out in the comments below! And let me know who your favorite character from Defensive Baking is! (Mine is Bob, if you were curious.)

Happy Baking!

It is nearly impossibly to be sad when eating a [gingerbread cookie]. I’m pretty sure that’s a scientific fact.”

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking

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