This Wednesday, February 12, will mark 206 years since Abraham Lincoln was born on his family's farm in Kentucky. The family lived there until Abe was nearly eight, moving to homestead in wild southern Indiana. Lincoln later wrote a poem in which he described those early Hoosier settlement days. One stanza says:
When first my father settled here,
'Twas then the frontier line:
The Panther's scream, filled the night with fear
And bears preyed on the swine.
Among the young boy's favorite treats were these gingerbread men, made either by his mother Nancy who died when Abraham was nine, or by his step-mother Sarah. Lincoln described these soft cookies several times, almost giving a recipe. When he was in the White House President Lincoln told the story about those men describing the two key ingredients--sorghum and ginger--and the texture, being able to eat one quickly in two bites.
Lincoln had first used the homey anecdote to great advantage during the Lincoln-Douglas debates when he diffused the excessive and insincere praised heaped upon him by the "Little Giant" Senator Douglas. The tall, eloquent lawyer from Springfield allowed as how he was like his poor neighbor "Hoosier boy" back in Indiana who loved gingerbread more than anyone and never got any. Lincoln said that he was so unaccustomed to praise that he forgot to get angry even at the misrepresentations Douglas had insinuated within it.
Abraham Lincoln won the hearts and the humanity of the audience that day, even though he lost the election. It was the second and last one he would ever lose in his long political career in the Illinois Statehouse, United States' Congress, and the Presidency.
These easy-to-make treats will win your hearts, too. Perfect to make with children or grandchildren and celebrate Lincoln's birthday or President's day in two weeks.
Abraham Lincoln's Gingerbread Men
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sorghum syrup, you may use light or dark molasses
3 1/3 cups flour
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold salted butter
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease two baking sheets. Pour the milk into a glass measuring cup and add the sorghum. Stir to mix. In a medium mixing bowl combine the flour, brown sugar, baking soda and ginger. Slice the butter into small pieces and cut into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or two knives until the mixture looks like coarse cornmeal. Add the milk mixture and stir with a fork or spoon, kneading until smooth like children's play clay.
To make a gingerbread men about 4 inches high, break off a piece of dough a little larger than a golf ball. Place it on your work surface and roll it lightly under your palms to form a pencil-thin rope of dough about 12 inches long. Break off a piece about 4 inches long and set aside. This will become the arms.
Fold the remaining rope in half to form a narrow, upside-down V. Grasp the folded top and pinch together one inch down from the top and twist to form the neck. Put the arm piece under the neck and place on the baking sheet. Make the remaining men.
Bake until the cookies are lightly browned, about 15 to 20 minutes. Watch carefully as the sorghum or molasses in the dough can burn quickly.
Makes 18 gingerbread men 4-inches high.
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