Gingerbread men
"Run, run as fast as you can, you cant catch me I'm the Gingerbread man!"
We all love a good story and kids love the story of the gingerbread man! Last week, having read the story with my 7 year old we dedcided to make a batch of gingerbread ladies and men!
This is an easy recipe and an ideal one to make with parents. You can get really creative with the decoration, using lots of different coloured icing or making faces. However, I like to keep it simple and draw on faces and buttons with a skewer in the soft dough rather than adding more sugar!
Please note: you need to chill the dough for 2 hours before cutting and baking!
INGREDIENTS
175g caster sugar
6 tbsp honey
1 tbsp orange juice
1tsp vanilla extract
2.5 tsp ground ginger
200g butter
450g pain flour
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
METHOD:
1. Place the sugar, honey, juice, vanilla and spice into a pan over medium heat until dissolved.
2. Remove from the heat and add in the butter, stir until melted.
3. Stir in flour and baking soda, wrap in cling wrap and chill for 2 hours.
4. Cut the dough into 3cm pieces and roll out to 0.5cm thickness, cut out the gingerbread shapes.
5. place on a lined backing tray. You can use a skewer to make out face and buttons at this stage, go deep as the cookies will rise on baking.
6. Bake at 180°C for 10 mins and allow to cool on the tray.
7. Decorate as you wish, using icing writing tubes.
Variation:
You could add some ground star anise if you wish or grated orange zest for more of an orange flavour. You can also mark the face and buttons on the biscuits as soon as they come out of the oven before they harden.
Storage:
Store in a airtight container for 4-5 days.
