| 1 | Preparation time: 30 minutes chilling time: overnight baking time: 10 minutes |
| 2 | Cream shortening and sugar in mixing bowl, beat in eggs, one at a time. |
| 3 | Mix water and baking soda in small bowl until dissolved. |
| 4 | Add baking soda mixture and sorghum to butter mixture. |
| 5 | Sift 5 ?cups of the flour, the spices and salt together. |
| 6 | Blend into dough. |
| 7 | Divide dough into 4 balls. |
| 8 | Wrap in plastic wrap. |
| 9 | Flatten and refrigerate overnight. |
| 10 | Heat oven to 350 degrees. |
| 11 | Roll 1 portion of dough out at a time on lightly floured surface. |
| 12 | Cut into desired shapes. |
| 13 | Bake on a greased cookie sheet until puffed, 10 to 12 minutes. |
| 14 | Do not overbake. |
| 15 | When cool, decorate with buttercream frosting and/or candies as desired. |
| 16 | Sorghum gives these cookies a special flavor, but molasses can be used as a substitute. |
| 17 | ann smith of plainfield won second place, and described how her gingerbread men left bohemia in 1872 and immigrated to the united states. |
| 18 | Smith"s great-grandmother, "babicka" novak, lived in a small czech-american town in south dakota where smith"s mother grew up in the 1920s. |
| 19 | At christmas time, her great-grandma would give her neighbors old world gingerbread men, reindeer and rocking horses. |
| 20 | "one year when great-grandma delivered the cookies, she brought along her teenaged grandson, who was visiting from a small ethnic czech community in nebraska," smith wrote. |
| 21 | "introductions made that day over the watchful eyes of the gingerbread men eventually lead to wedding bells for my parents a decade later. |
| 22 | Great-grandma novak probably had planned this all along!" from the chicago tribune second annual food guide holiday cookie contest december 14, 1989 |
