In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and brown sugar, and whisk to combine well.

Chop the butter roughly and add it to the dry ingredients. Mix the butter in, pressing down with the back of the spoon to work the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse sand. There should be no visible clumps of butter remaining.

Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the molasses, honey, egg and vanilla.

Mix to combine. The mixture will be thick and sticky, but will hold together in large clumps.

Divide the dough into 2 equal parts, each about 350 grams. Wrap each tightly in plastic wrap, press each into a small rectangle, and refrigerate for about 10 minutes. This will make rolling it out easier.

Working with one half of the dough at a time, remove the plastic, and place on a large sheet of parchment paper, lightly floured. Sprinkle the top of the dough will more flour.

Roll the dough into a rectangle about 1/4-inch thick, sprinkling the rolling pin and dough lightly with more flour as necessary to prevent sticking. Turn the dough over and move it around the parchment paper freqently to ensure it isn’t sticking.

Use a gingerbread man-shaped cookie cutter to cut out as many shapes from the cookie dough as possible without overlapping. Pull away the remaining raw dough and gather it to reroll.

Brush away any remaining flour dustings and slide the cookie shapes, still on the parchment, onto a flat portable surface. Place in the refrigerator until firm (about 10 minutes).

Once chilled, carefully peel off the cut-out shapes and place them, about 1 1/2-inches apart, on the prepared baking sheets.

Repeat the process with the remaining dough.

Decorate the completely cooled cookies with royal icing, if desired. Allow the icing to set for 24 hours before stacking the cookies for display or storage.