GINGERBREAD COOKIES

1. To brown butter, place butter in small saucepan over medium-low heat. Swirl and melt completely. Butter will boil. Continue to swirl and cook until butter turns golden brown and brown bits start forming on bottom of pan. Once butter has a nutty scent and is deep golden brown, remove from heat and transfer to a heat proof bowl. Make sure you spoon out all little black bits from the saucepan. Let brown butter cool at least 15 minutes before using in a cookie recipe.
2. When butter has cooled for 15 minutes, place in stand mixer and add dark brown sugar. Beat until well combined. Add molasses, oil, egg and vanilla beating until well combined. Slowly add flour, cinnamon, ginger, salt and baking soda. Mix until dough forms. Place half of dough in between two large pieces of parchment paper. Use rolling pin to roll dough out to a round 1/4 inch in sheet. Use Mickey cookie cutter to cut shapes. Remove top piece of parchment paper and transfer entire bottom piece of parchment and dough onto a baking sheet. Stick in the freezer while oven preheats, about 10 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degree F. When oven is preheated, remove baking sheet from freezer and remove excess dough around cookie cut outs, just leaving the Mickey gingerbread Men. You also can carefully use a spatula to move the shapes to a different baking sheet, just be careful transferring. Bake for 5-6 minutes and remove from oven. Let cool completely on baking sheet.
4. When cookies are cool, melt white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Let hot melted chocolate sit in bowl for a minute or two then spoon into a corner of a Ziplock Baggie. Twist top down and snip a very small corner of baggie so you can now use as a “pen.” Practice your skills on a paper plate or piece of paper before decorating your cookies. Outline the body with the white chocolate, then add little squiggles at the arms, legs and ears. Melt Dark Chocolate melts and spoon into the corner of a separate Ziplock Baggie. Twist top and snip a small corner of baggie to use as your “pen.” Add the eyes, nose and smile with the chocolate. Add a touch of red food coloring to the white melted chocolate to make pink and use the Ziplock Baggie method to add little pink dots at the corner of the smile. Create red melted chocolate and do the same Ziplock Baggie method to create a little bowtie. It’s basically two triangles filled in. Practice once or twice before going for it. Add a dot of white chocolate to the back of Mini Green M&M’s and add buttons on the front of the cookies. Let the chocolate set up and serve room temperature or chilled.

Cook’s Notes: If you want to add a delicious layer of chocolate to your gingerbread cookies, melt 1 pound (450 grams) chocolate candy melts, in desired color, in the microwave according to package directions. Dip cooled cookies in chocolate and rest on wire racks for