The recipe that follows is for a basic Gingerbread cut-out cookie. This year, for Halloween, I'm using an Easter egg cookie cutter upside-down to cut out Gingerbread Alien heads. I'll use the Shiny Cookie Icing (tinted a spooky green by adding a little yellow) on some of them, and pipe dark chocolate mouths and eyes on top of the icing. For the rest, I'll do filled cookies - half of the remaining Alien heads will be topped with a green buttercream, and half will have eyes and mouths cut out with a small, sharp knife before baking. They'll go on top of the buttercream-layer heads after they cool, and the buttercream will "glow" through.

I wish I could claim this is an original idea, but I think I saw it in one of those check-out stand magazines. You can use a standard roll-and-cut dough if you don't care for Gingerbread, but I'm baking so many roll-and-cut pumpkins and bats and whatnot that I thought Gingerbread would be a nice change!

Gingerbread Men (soft) with Royal Icing
Makes about 1 1/2 - 2 dozen cookies

A good, soft gingerbread men cookie recipe.

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
2 1/2 cups sifted flour
2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 deg. F. Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl until fluffy. Add molasses and egg. Beat until smooth. In a medium bowl, combine remaining ingredients. Add to creamed mixture and stir until a soft dough forms. Chill the dough for a couple hours if it is too soft to roll.

On a lightly floured surface, use a floured rolling pin and roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Use a floured cookie cutter to cut out the men. Transfer to a greased cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are firm. Transfer to a wire rack with waxed paper underneath to cool completely.

Ice with royal icing, or decorate before baking with cinnamon candies, nonpareils, etc., or after baking with decorating icing.

Royal icing follows, but this icing tastes AWESOME on the gingerbread. Dries to a smooth, shiny finish that can be stacked.

Shiny Cookie Icing

1 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp milk
2 tsp light corn syrup
1/4 tsp almond extract
food coloring, if desired

Beat all ingredients together until smooth. Add more corn syrup to thin, if necessary. Paint on baked cookies.

Royal Icing

2 2/3 cups sifted powdered sugar
4 Tbsp. warm water
2 Tbsp. meringue powder
1/2 tsp. lemon extract

Beat sugar, water, powder and lemon extract in a medium bowl with electric mixer 7 to 10 minutes or until stiff. Spoon icing into a pastry bag fitted with a medium round tip. Pipe icing on cookies, outlining features of gingerbread men and decorating tops. Allow icing to harden. Store in airtight container.