For the boy

Gingerbread Men
The Ugly Binder, from allrecipes.com

1 (3.5 ounce) package cook and serve butterscotch pudding mix
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. In a medium bowl, cream together the dry butterscotch pudding mix, butter, and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the egg. Combine the flour, baking soda, ginger, and cinnamon; stir into the pudding mixture. Cover, and chill dough until firm, about 1 hour. I didn't chill the dough. I immediately rolled it out between sheets of parchment paper.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease baking sheets. On a floured board, roll dough out to about 1/8 inch thickness, and cut into man shapes using a cookie cutter. Place cookies 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets (they do spread a tad bit). I used cinnamon candies for the buttons, added before baking.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until cookies are golden at the edges. Cool on wire racks.

I got 22 men but it will depend on the size of your cookie cutter.
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My son asked me to make gingerbread men. I said yes but I really didn't want to make them. I really, really didn't want to make them. I've made them before and they were a lot of work and while gingerbread cookies are edible, they are way down on the bottom of my list as far as cookies go.

I wondered if he would even like the taste of gingerbread. I had my doubts so I went looking for something a little less traditional. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. It wasn't a traditional gingerbread cookie with molasses but it still had ginger so it wasn't like I was just making sugarcookie men.

I loved these cookies. LOVED, LOVED, LOVED them. They were crisp and a bit spicy. You know I'm a big fan of butterscotch so the butterscotch undertones really worked for me. My son loved them too.

I made these for his teachers and I'll make more for the rest of my cookie trays right before Christmas. I don't usually do cut-out cookies at Christmas but this dough was easy to work with and these were easy to decorate.

I usually only give the teachers one baked good each year since I give them gift cards (and this year I got chocolate figurines in Costco for them too) but yesterday I felt compelled to make these cookies, sugar cookies and brownies. I jazzed everything up for Christmas. I don't know why I can never make things easy on myself.

Question of the Day: Do you like gingerbread cookies?