Gingerbread is one of those things that just seems synonymous with Christmas. As soon as the festive season comes around, everyone goes cray cray for it and I am certainly no exception. I'm rather partial to a good ol' gingerbread man (or two) and so I guess it's surprising that I've never turned my hand to making a homemade batch myself before - until now. Since getting my hands on Tanya Burr's 'Tanya Bakes' book earlier in the year, I instantly pinpointed her 'Edible Christmas Tree Decorations' as a recipe I wanted to recreate myself. They're gingerbread biscuits aimed to be used as - you guessed it - edible decorations for your tree - but I figured they'd work just as well as traditional gingerbread cookies. So, the other day I gave them a go...
Edible Tree Decorations/ Gingerbread Cookies (Makes 40):
Ingredients:
150g unsalted butter, softened
150g dark muscovado sugar
2 eggs
3 tablespoons golden syrup
400g plain flour (plus a little extra for dusting)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper. Cream together your butter and sugar until it's all light and fluffy and add in the eggs and golden syrup until it's all combined. Mix in the flour (I personally like to do this a little at a time) along with the baking powder and spices to make a dough. Roll out the dough onto a floured surface and try to make it an average thickness of about 3-4mm (not too thick, not too thin) and use your favourite Christmas cookie cutters to cut out some awesome festive shapes. Keep going until all of your dough is completely used up. If you want to use them as actual decorations, poke a little hole in the top of each one before baking (you'll also probably have to do this after they come out of the oven too). Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown and transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool down fully. Never ice while they're still piping hot! Once completely cool, you're free to decorate them just how you want to. Go wild - it is Christmas after all.
And there you have it - cute little gingerbread cookies, perfect for Christmas! Whether you make a batch simply to enjoy at home, or packaged up as an actual gift - these are just ideal for around the festive season and I am so glad I finally gave them a go. Maybe give them a go yourselves too? You certainly won't regret it...
No comments:
Post a Comment