Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Ninja-bread Men

DAY 5: Ninja-bread Men

A fun twist on regular Gingerbread Men cookies, these Ninjas are a real kid pleaser!

I am including my favorite gingerbread recipe, which is a very mild gingerbread called Swedish Peppar Kakar. Pipe details on with Royal Icing. You can completely frost the cookie first (as the cookie cutter package shows) and then pipe on details, or skip the icing and just pipe the details (as I did).

I bought my NinjaBread Men cookie cutters at Target last year.

RECIPE:

Ninja-bread Men

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp salt
½ cup butter
¾ cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
2 tsp molasses

Combine dry ingredients; set aside. Cream butter and sugar. Blend in egg and molasses. Add dry ingredients; mix well. Add a little bit more flour (up to ¼ cup), if necessary, to get a dough that is soft, but not sticky.

Chill dough for 1 hour. Roll and cut into shapes.

Bake at 350°F for 8 to 9 minutes. Don’t overbake, or they will become crispy instead of soft. Pipe details on Ninjas with Royal Icing

Royal Icing
——(from Bake at 350)

2 Tbs meringue powder
scant ¼ cup water
½ lb powdered sugar
½ tsp light corn syrup

Combine the meringue powder and water. With the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, beat until combined and foamy. Sift in the powdered sugar and beat on low to combine. (Do NOT skip the sifting!)

Mix in the corn syrup. Increase speed to med-high/high and beat for about 5 minutes, just until the icing is glossy and stiff peaks form. (You should be able to remove the beater from the mixer and hold up and jiggle without the peak falling.) Do not overbeat.

To store for later use: cover with plastic wrap touching the icing and refrigerate.

NOTE: This makes “stiff” icing which is perfect for piping details. If you want to flood (totally frost) your cookies first, double the recipe above. Reserve some stiff icing to outline and pipe details. To fill in your cookies, first tint the remaining icing with food coloring. Then add water to your icing a teaspoon at a time, stirring with a rubber spatula, until it is the consistency of syrup. Outline the cookies first with stiff icing, then flood the center with the thinner icing. Wait several hours until icing has completely hardened before piping on additional details over the flooded icing.

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