Thank you both for the nice comments. I am going to freeze this batch and get ready to make another for the weekend (to make it worth my while to make a batch of royal icing).  I’ll post finished pictures of my GBM army when they are completed.

Thanks again so much for the comments.  I have to finish the bittersweet almond genoise for Wednesday night!

When making gingerbread men/shapes, I have the same problem with softening dough, and the baked cookies losing definition.  So now, I usually roll the gingerbread/snap cookie dough out, then cut into 4 portions, and refrigerate or (in my case) freeze briefly.  When working with one portion of dough I keep the rest cold.  I cut out the shapes and then re-freeze them.  I bake off the cookie shapes frozen.  I find this way they keep their definition better for icing.

I roll my dough on parchment, then slip the parchment onto a sheet pan and put it in the fridge to chill before I cut out my shapes.  And of course, always place the cutouts on cool cookie sheets.

LIttleIsland - 14 November 2009 09:20 AM

When making gingerbread men/shapes, I have the same problem with softening dough, and the baked cookies losing definition.  So now, I usually roll the gingerbread/snap cookie dough out, then cut into 4 portions, and refrigerate or (in my case) freeze briefly.  When working with one portion of dough I keep the rest cold.  I cut out the shapes and then re-freeze them.  I bake off the cookie shapes frozen.  I find this way they keep their definition better for icing.

Thanks so much for this tip, for these cookies it makes the difference between cookies that bake to look like the Gingerbread Man or Cartman…

Heads up for you miscellaneous GBM bakers that think you might need to attemp to “bend” your fat GBM cookie cutter to make it thinner:  it is VERY easy to break the solder on a cookie cutter ring…