For the sponge:

Place yeast into a mixing bowl. Add warm water (at about 110 F) and sugar. Give it a little swirl and let it sit for about 10 minutes to create the sponge for your dough.

While waiting for sponge to do its magic, you can get the other ingredients ready.

For the pastry:

After sponge has developed (it should look bubbly), add the pastry ingredients (except for the flour) to the sponge. Mix well.

Keep mixing and add a couple of cups of flour. Continue to mix in flour 1/2 a cup at a time until dough “hugs” or mostly clings to the beater. Dough will have gone from somewhat soupy to more elastic. Give or take, it can take about 7 cups of flour to reach this point. This isn’t an exact measurement because the amount of flour you’ll need depends on how much moisture is in the air.

This is the time to switch to the dough hook. Kneed with dough hook for about 6-8 minutes.

Cover the dough with a clean warm, damp towel and let dough sit in the mixing bowl in a warm place for about 1 hour or until dough has doubled in size.

Turn happily risen dough onto flour-covered countertop. Coat with a little bit of flour and use a rolling pin to roll it out to about 1/2 inch thick.

Find a gingerbread boy cookie cutter that is about 5-6 inches tall. Dip it in flour a bit so it doesn’t stick to the dough then use it to cut the boys out. If you don’t have a gingerbread boy cookie cutter, you can just cut into rectangles and make baked maple bars. I promise you that they will taste just as amazing.

If making the night before, cover cut cookies with non-stick spray-coated Saran wrap and place in the fridge. Then pull them out about 1/2 hour before baking and preheat oven to 350 F. Bake as described below.

If baking on the same day, preheat oven to 350 F. Place boys on a baking sheet that you’ve coated with non-stick baking spray or parchment paper. Let them sit on the tray in a warm place until doubled in size (about 45 minutes) or if your oven has a proofing setting, you can place them in there for about 1/2 hour to speed things up. After they’re done rising, bake for about 20 minutes or until light golden brown.

For the maple frosting:

Place all maple frosting ingredients into a mixer and beat until well mixed and smooth. When maple boys are finished baking, pull the tray out of the oven. Cool maple boys for about 5-10 minutes and then coat with maple frosting.

For the white frosting:

Mix ingredients for white frosting together until smooth and place in a decorating bag with a small round tip to drawn on face, buttons and gingerbread boy squiggles.

Your family might actually have a hard time deciding between gift opening and eating their Maple Boys. Okay, maybe not, but there’s no better way to start Christmas morning than to spoil them with both.