Run run as fast as you can – you can’t catch me I’m the Gingerbread Man

I haven’t done a recipe post in quite some time, but after baking some Gingerbread men yesterday for Isaac’s birthday I got a couple of requests for the recipe.

It is an easy one to do and kids of all ages just love to help!

Ingredients:

300g Butter
125g Caster Sugar
125g Soft Dark Brown Sugar
225g Golden Syrup or Treacle
725g Plain Flour
2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
3tsp Ground Ginger
1tsp Ground Cinnamon

Method:

Part One:

1. In a large saucepan, melt the butter together with the sugars and golden syrup (or treacle)
2. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of sofa, ground ginger and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl
3. Add the melted butter and sugar and mix
4. Knead the mixture for a few seconds until it comes together, adding a teaspoon or so of water if necessary. (Don’t allow the mixture to become too wet – it should bond and hold nicely together without crumbling)
5. Flatten the dough slightly into a round about 2cm thick, wrap with clingfilm and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Melting Sugars

It should look like this the it comes together

Have a break and go and enjoy a cuppa whilst it chills.  Preheat the oven to 180C (350F) / Gas Mark 4 and Line two Baking Trays with greaseproof or parchment paper.

Part Two:

1. Remove the dough from the fridge
2. Dust the work surface with flour and roll all of the dough out to about 5mm thick
3. Cut out your preferred shapes using cutters and transfer onto the baking trays
4. Cook in the oven for 12 minutes, until they are slightly firm, a little darker at the edges and slightly drier on top.
5. Allow the shapes to firm up for a few minutes whilst still on the baking tray and then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool

Rolling out

We chose Bats as my son is Batman mad!

It is up to you how you decorate.  As ours were for a child’s party we chose to use Dr Oetker Writing Icing so the children could decorate their own gingerbread shape themselves with minimal mess, however if you want to make your own you will need:

Icing:

175g Icing Sugar
1-2 Tbsp Boiling Water

1. Sift the Icing sugar into a bowl and add the water
2. Beat until the icing comes together, adding a little more icing sugar if necessary (be careful not to make it too runny)
3. Using a small palette knife or the back of a spoon dipped into boiling water (to make it easier to spread), spread the icing over the gingerbread shape

If you wish to pipe on details, such as faces and hair, spoon the icing into a small piping bag with just the smallest corner cut off

Whilst the icing is still unset on the biscuits, decorate with silver balls, smarties or whatever decorations you are using and set aside for the icing to set!

Concentrating on getting it perfect