Soft Gingerbread Men Cookies

Whisk the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.

Cream the butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and brown sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the wet ingredients. Beat in the egg, then mix in the molasses and vanilla until smooth.

Make the dough. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until no dry flour remains. The dough will be soft and a little sticky.

Chill. Divide dough in half, flatten into two disks, wrap tightly, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.

Preheat and prep pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Roll the dough. Work with one disk at a time. Roll between two sheets of parchment to about 1/4-inch thick. If the parchment slides, a light dusting of flour can help, but you usually will not need much.

Peel off the top parchment, then cut out gingerbread men. Pull away the excess dough first, then lift the cutouts with a thin spatula if needed and transfer to the baking sheet, leaving about 1 inch of space.

Pro move: If the cutouts feel warm or stretchy, chill the whole tray for 10 minutes before baking. Cleaner shapes, less spread.

Bake. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until the edges look set and just a shade darker and the tops look dry while the centers are still slightly soft. For softer cookies, pull them closer to 8 to 9 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then move to a wire rack.

Make the icing (optional). Whisk powdered sugar, meringue powder, vanilla, salt, and 3 tablespoons water. Add more water 1 teaspoon at a time until you get the consistency you want. The icing thickens as it sits, so you can re-thin it with a few drops of water as you go.

• Outline icing: thick toothpaste texture
• Flood icing: slightly thinner, it should settle smooth in about 10 seconds

Note: This batch is usually enough for simple outlining on about 24 cookies. If you want full flooding on the whole batch, plan to make 1 1/2 to 2 batches (depending on how detailed you get).

Decorate. Once cookies are fully cool, pipe on icing. Let set at room temperature for at least 1 hour before stacking. If you can resist, let them set overnight for the cleanest finish.