Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes

While butter and sugars are being creamed, sift all the dry ingredients in a large bowl; I have found that a whisk does this just nicely if a sifter is not within reach

Add egg, vanilla, white vinegar, and molasses to creamed butter/sugars

Slowly mix in dry ingredients, pouring in a small amount at a time.

Once the dough is formed, half it and place each half in plastic wrap or inside a ziploc bag. Place in refrigerator and allow to chill for at least 1 hour. At this point, you could leave the dough in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

While dough is chilling, preheat oven to 350.

After chilling time, roll out the dough, 1/2" thick, onto a lightly floured surface. Do this in small batches. We used a small gingerbread cookie cutter perfect for small hands to cut all our gingerbread men out. Place the cut out cookies on to a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 for 9-11 minutes. As soon as I notice the edges of the cookie looking a tad bit darker (I know, harder to tell with darker colored cookies), I know they are done!

Continue do this, small batches at a time-leaving the remainder dough in the refrigerator. This is a key step in getting those perfect cookie cutter cookies!

Allow the cookies to cool for at least 10 minutes before icing/decorating. At this step, once cookies have completely cooled, you can freeze any extra cookies that you are not wanting to decorate just yet. Place these non-decorated cookies in a freezer ziploc bag and freeze for up to 6 weeks!