Friday 4 January 2013

Gingerbread Recipe - BLOGEXTRA

It's still Christmas in my heart! I actually love gingerbread, and would love to have these all year, but I might need to buy some gingerbread man cookie cutters...




The cookies are going to be quite thin, so even though the measurements seem small, don't get carried away. I also made icing which was really fun, I'd love to do this with children it's so simple and messy! 

You can buy icing bottles and premade icing in all kinds of colours for decorations, I used a simple icing sugar and water mixture, which I spooned into a sandwich bag. With a tiny cut in the bottom of the bag, hey presto! the perfect icing tool. 

Ingredients
350g plain flour 
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 tsp ground ginger
1tsp ground cinnamon
125g butter (unsalted) - ("Half fat to flour")
175g brown sugar
1 egg
4 tbsp golden syrup

I've put the measurements on here, but I mostly do all of my measurements by eye. By the taste of the cookies, that doesn't matter, I just needed to keep a closer eye on the timer... ignore the slightly charred corners. 

Make sure that the butter and golden syrup are at room temperature before you start. 

Preheat the oven to 180.

1. Sift the flour, soda, ginger and cinnamon into a bowl. Add butter and rub the mixture into breadcrumbs with your fingertips. Stir the sugar into the breadcrumbs.

2. This is tricky. Mix the golden syrup and the egg together. Stir gently into the dry ingredients and knead together. 

3. Line a tray with grease proof paper. Tip your dough onto a floured surface and roll out to biscuit thickness. Using cutters (or a glass with a thin lip), cut out your cookies and place them on the grease proof paper. 

4. Bake for 10-13 minutes. It's quick, you want to catch them right when they start to look crispy. Let them cool and then gently ice each cookie however you want. 


That's my gingerbread recipe. Enjoy all year round, why should Christmas have all the fun?