Gingerbread Men & Women

GINGERBREAD MEN

(Makes 12)

INGREDIENTS

250g Plain Flour

75g cold butter (diced)

1½ Teaspoons mixed spice

1½ Teaspoons Ginger

1 teaspoon Bread soda

100g Brown Sugar

1 large eggs

50g Golden syrup

ICING

1 egg white

250g icing sugar

METHOD

• Put about half the flour and all the butter in a food processor and whizz until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
• Tip the buttery flour mix into a large bowl and add the rest of the dry ingredients, the rest of the flour, spices, bread soda and stir in the sugar.
• Whisk the eggs with the golden syrup and then pour on top of your dry mix, use your wooden spoon or mixer to combine together to make a yummy dough.
• You can use the dough straight away or cover and chill or even freeze to use at a later date.
• Pre-heat your oven to 180C
• Roll out a quarter of your dough at a time so you don’t over work.
• I like to roll out my cookie dough on Marzipan ‘Spacers’ which are like thick rulers especially used for cookie dough, as you roll out the dough between these train tracks all your cookies have the same thickness and will bake evenly.
• If you don’t have spacers you could use a thin chopping board or cake board on either side as you roll out to give a similar effect.
• Cut out your cookies making sure you handle them with care as the dough is quite soft.
• Place on a greased baking tray and chill the cookies for at least 30 minutes before baking.
• Bake in your oven for 12-15 minutes, the longer you leave them the crunchier they bake.
• These cookies puff a little while baking but settle down once baked.
• Make sure you have enough space on the tray for them to grow a little as they need wriggle room

ICING

• To make the icing, beat the icing sugar with the egg white until you have a stiff paste, adding a little water a drop at a time where necessary if the icing is too stiff.
• Fill a piping bag with your icing and snip a small cut at the tip so you have control of your piping as you decorate, get creative!

The icing takes about an hour to set on each gingerbread men so be careful when packaging that the gingerbread men are dry before you wrap.