You may lack the skills to construct one of those intricate gingerbread houses that plague the internet, but perhaps you could manage these pretty biscuits, by Karla Goodwin? Somebody would definitely be impressed.
Gingerbread Biscuits
A tried and tested recipe that we’ve been using since the first days of the Hillsborough Bluebells Cakery store; it was given to me by one of my first employees. It’s a great recipe to make with the kids — you can use whatever shape of cutter you like and I guarantee you’ll have a heap of fun decorating them!
Makes about 18 biscuits
INGREDIENTS
2¾ cups + 1 Tbsp (350g) plain flour
1 Tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup + 2 Tbsp (175g) firmly packed soft brown sugar
¼ cup (80g) golden syrup
1 free-range egg
METHOD
1 Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan-bake). Line two baking trays with baking paper.
2 Sift the flour, spices and baking soda into a bowl and set aside.
3 Cream the butter, sugar and golden syrup with a handheld electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix through with the electric mixer until combined.
4 Mix the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl to make sure everything is incorporated. The mixture will be quite thick now.
5 Tip the dough out on to a lightly floured bench and knead to bring the mixture together into a smooth ball.
6 Break the dough into manageable pieces and roll one piece out on a lightly floured bench until roughly 5mm thick.
7 Cut out your desired shapes. Lifting them carefully with a knife underneath the dough, transfer the shapes to the baking trays, placing them at least 2cm apart.
8 Continue rolling and cutting out shapes until you have used up all your dough.
9 Bake the biscuits for 15–20 minutes, or until the centre feels firm to the touch and they start to turn golden brown on the edges. If you like them crunchier, you can leave them in for a further 5–10 minutes.
10 Gently swap the positions of the trays halfway through the baking time. Cool on the baking trays for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
There are lots of ways you can decorate your gingerbread. For Christmas we like to dip our tree shapes in melted white chocolate and decorate with sprinkles. For the more classic gingerbread men, you can attach coloured Smarties to each biscuit with a small amount of melted chocolate.
These biscuits will keep for up to a week in an airtight container at room temperature.
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