Peppermint Chocolate Gingerbread Men {Christmas Cookie Recipe}

Full of flavor, these designer looking cookies are actually quite simple to make! 

Gingerbread cookies are a tradition in my household. A tradition that began when my husband and I were so very young, just starting out in life. I was a new mom still in my 20's. We lived in a little apartment and I had just quit work to stay at home full time with my kiddos.

At that time my husband worked on commission and had a very bad month. We knew his check was never the same from month to month, and was usually not forgiving at Christmas, so we were prepared.

 But, that first December was even more difficult that we expected. And we knew there would be no money for gifts outside of our little family. Being one who liked to bake, I always had an ample supply of flour, brown sugar, and such on hand. So I rifled through my cabinets and found that I had enough to make several dozen gingerbread men!

My oldest son, who was all of 2, and I set about making gingerbread men. We had the best time. He giggled as he saw them take shape. He waited as for them to come out of the oven and cool. He ate ALL of the broken ones. We made faces, smiles, frowns, and crooked little mouths.

We had so much fun! It became a tradition. And after 11 years of tweaking, the recipe below is the recipe we now make each year at Christmas. And that little 2 year old, who is now nearly 14, still smiles as he cuts out gingerbread men!

These cookies are really simple, there are no special tools required. The snowflake was an added touch this year, I bought a shaker full of them, but we usually make these without snowflakes. Once you have made your gingerbread men you just dip them in Chocolate that has been heated with a little vegetable oil and then when they are completely cool use a tablespoon to drizzle a mix of powdered sugar water and peppermint extract. Peppermint extract is found right next to the vanilla extract in most stores.

And the recipe above is printable!
To print: click on the recipe, click again to make sure it if fully expanded. Select 'file' and 'print' from your browsers window. (If you are using google chrome you may need to right click and open the recipe in a new window, click again to expand it, and then select the wrench from the top of the page to find the print button). If you have any trouble try saving the recipe to your desktop by right clicking on it and saving it and then printing from there.


I shared this recipe before, but as I am making these today though I would post them for anyone else looking for a fun holiday treat. :)