A Gingerbread Family

For the Holidays I was feeling a bit sentimental. It would be my first Christmas in Barcelona and my first Christmas married and part of a new family with their own time honored traditions. I was wracking my brain to do something traditional, but new to me. I had already done Apple and Pumpkin Pies for Thanksgiving and was looking for variation. I read through my absolute favorite baking book - The Williams-Sonoma Baking Book (it has everything) to get an idea.

I am a more make-it-up-as-you-go-along savory cook than a measure-it-all-out sweets master, so I have always been very cautious about keeping the right distance away from various baked goods. However, now that I am part of a different culture, I have become interested in the art and have been trying my hand at a number of different recipes. (It helps that Andres is the only one who knows when a recipe doesn't turn out and still digs his fork into my creation with a smile)

When it finally dawned on me to make Gingerbread People, I set off in search of People cookie cutters (I surprisingly found them in a large hardware store I entered to escape the cold while waiting for the bus). Next I went in search of sprinkles, which ended up being much more difficult to find (5 euros for a little tube of Rainbow Jimmies that seemed to have faded in color). I finally found a large jar with four separate types of sprinkles in Caprabo (one of the grocery chains). That would do!

Although the dough "melts" within about eight minutes of being rolled out, Andres and I came down with a system and the cookies turned out perfectly!

The first batch of Gingerbread People prepped for decoration

The cutters I had found were an entire family of Mom, Dad, Little Sister and Little Brother. We snacked on the children while decorating the adults to eat on Christmas Day.

Twenty-five large and fifteen small decorated in total

With four colors of icing, sprinkles, mini m&ms, and Christmas music, the day turned out better than I could have imagined. In hindsight, the Cookies and the Royal Icing were so easy to make, although you have to refrigerate the dough for at least two hours which we didn't plan for. This is a recipe worthy of tradition!

Williams-Sonoma Gingerbread People Recipe

Williams-Sonoma Royal Icing