It is not time for gingerbread men, but I assembled this army of gingerbread men when I got my hands on a good supply of molasses.

Everyone has a go-to, favorite recipe for certain types of cookies. My grandmother had what she considered a foolproof gingerbread cookie recipe. It involved boiling water (this being the distinguishing characteristic I remember about it). She never used any other recipe because she claimed that this was the only one that would work for her. Attempt after attempt, I could never quite make the dough turn out the way I wanted, so I had to seek out my own solution and thus found the following recipe, being posted here only a few months after making the post with pictures… (This makes a very large batch, as evidenced by the 7 cups of flour.)

1/3 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 ½ cups dark molasses
2/3 cup cold water
7 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix shortening, sugar and molasses. Add the cold water. Blend dry ingredients together and then mix them into the wet. Split the dough into two or three sections and wrap them for chilling. Chill the dough at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 175C while you roll the dough out section by section. Roll dough to ¼-inch thickness and then cut into desired shapes. Bake at 175C for 10 to 12 minutes.