Gingerbread Cookies

A better pic of the cookies in natural sunlight

The other day I read The Gingerbread Man with one of my fourth grade English Language Learners.  I asked him if he'd ever eaten gingerbread, and he said yes.  When I asked him if it was sweet, he said no, like bread.  I decided that I had to make some gingerbread cookies in order for him to truly appreciate the story.
Actually, I've been itching to bake something different, and gingerbread men (and bears, airplanes, fish, and stars) would scratch that itch.  I think they turned out tasty and cute.  The cookies are crisp the thinner you roll them, softer the thicker you cut them.  Pretty basic.  The pics leave something to be desired, but it's the best I can do without natural sunlight.
The recipe for the cookies is from Allrecipes.com, but I cannot remember what I did for the frosting, beyond adding awful amounts of food color paste that is.  I really think I did a basic sugar, milk, vanilla and coloring thing.  It firmed up pretty well and pretty much tasted sugary.
Here are some pics of what the kids and I did with the cookies.

Gingerbread Man Cookies

---Adapted from Allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour 2 teaspoons ground ginger 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup butter, softened 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar 1/2 cup molasses 1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Mix flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg and salt in large bowl. Beat butter and brown sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add molasses, egg and vanilla; beat well. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until well mixed. Press dough into a thick flat disk. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.
2.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness on lightly floured work surface. Cut into gingerbread men shapes with 5-inch cookie cutter. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets.
3.	Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges of cookies are set and just begin to brown. Cool on baking sheets 1 to 2 minutes. Remove to wire racks; cool completely. Decorate cooled cookies as desired. Store cookies in airtight container up to 5 days.

Isabel's gingerbread

Max's gingerbread

Gingerbread with rainbow sprinkles

Gingerbread with fancy icing