6 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 tbsp Baking soda
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp Ground Clove
1 tbsp Ground Ginger
1 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Salt
1 cup Vegetable Shortening
1 cup Brown sugar
1 cup Molasses
1/2 cup Water
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Mix flour, baking soda and ground spices with salt. Beat in the vegetable shortening, sugar, water, molasses, egg, vanilla extract. Blend well. Beat in flour mixture, portion at a time. Dough will be quite soft. Divide dough in to quarters. Pat each quarter into a 1 inch thick dough round. Wrap each round separately in plastic wrap. Chill for several hours or overnight. Roll dough on a sparsely floured surface, to about 1/8 inches thickness. With a gingerbread man cookie cutter, cut into gingerbread men. Place on baking sheet and bake 10 to 12 minutes at 350F degrees. Allow cookies to cool for about a minute before removing from cookie sheet to wire rack to cool completely. Decorate as desired.