In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or use a hand mixer and a large mixing bowl), add the brown sugar, butter, and vanilla extract. Beat on medium-high for 3 minutes or until paste-like in consistency.

Then, add the molasses and beat to combine for 10 seconds. Scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl and briefly beat again.

Add the egg and beat until homogenous in consistency.

Add the dry ingredients and mix on low just until the cookie dough has formed and there are no dry ingredients visible.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap in a disc shape and freeze for 20-30 minutes or until well chilled but still pliable.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C (355F) and line the baking sheet with parchment paper.

Roll the dough out with a floured rolling pin to ¼ inch or ½ cm thickness on a floured working surface. Flip the dough a couple of times and sprinkle on more flour if the dough sticks too much. Cut out the desired shapes and transfer them onto the prepared baking sheet. Collect all scraps and freeze again for 15 minutes while the first batch of cookies is baking.

Bake right away on the middle rack for 11-12 mins or until golden around the edges. Remove from the oven and let rest for 2 minutes on the sheet. Then transfer to a cooling rack using an offset spatula to cool down completely.

Re-roll the scraps and cut out a new batch of cookies. Place them on a completely cooled baking sheet. If you only have one baking sheet, you’ll need to either wait until it’s at room temperature again or place it under ice-cold water, dry it, and line it with parchment paper again. I rolled the dough two times in total and managed to cut out 24 medium-sized gingerbread men.

Decorate as desired. I glued chocolate sprinkles to my cookies using melted dark chocolate. If you choose to do the same, melt a little bit of chocolate in the microwave in short increments, mixing in between, just until a few solid bits are left. Then, mix to help them melt from the residual heat. Apply a little bit of chocolate on top of the cookie first. After, place your sprinkles on top. The chocolate will be set within 30 minutes to 1 hour at room temperature.