Crafty Repeat: Gingerbread Man Pin

Original Post: December 15th 2008

If you are like me and love the smell of gingerbread you'll love wearing this unique pin! These are easy to make and cost almost nothing, are a great project to do with kids and make excellent teachers presents. And look how cute he is! You can use this recipe to make ornaments as well. I have had mine for years and can still say that he smells as good as the day I made him.

You'll need:

• -1 cup brown sugar, packed
• -1 cup shortening
• -1 cup white glue (Elmers)
• -2 cups molasses
• -1 tablespoon baking soda
• -1 tablespoon ground ginger
• -6 to 8 cups all purpose flour
• -1 and 3/4 cups water
• -cookie cutters
• -pin backs
• -hot glue gun

You can certainly cut this recipe down depending on how many pins or ornaments you want to make. Remember these are NON-edible!

Mix the brown sugar and shortening together, add molasses and glue, mix well, set aside. Combine baking soda and ginger with 6 cups of flour, add this to the glue/brown sugar/etc. mixture and add the 1 and 3/4 cups water while mixing. Add enough remaining flour to make the mixture into a stiff dough and knead it well. Roll to about a 1/4 inch thickness and start cutting out your gingerbread men, and other shapes if you wish. If making ornaments using a straw poke holes in the dough for a string to be tied through. Place on an un-greased baking sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for one hour or until color is golden. Repeat with any remaining dough. To thoroughly dry gingerbread men, place them in the oven on oven racks and bake an additional 3 hours at 100 degrees. Let cool completely.

After gingerbread men are cool, using a hot glue gun glue a pin back onto the gingerbread man, let cool and you have a yummy smelling, cute holiday pin!