Gingerbread Men
Sweet, lightly spiced, crunchy biscuits. Shaped like little people and enjoyed by generations.
Servings: 10 biscuits
Ingredients
- 100 g Butter or Block Margarine at room temperature
- 100 g Soft Light Brown Sugar
- 3 tbsp
Golden Syrup (Substitutions) - 200 g Plain Flour (All-purpose Flour)
- ½ tsp Bicarbonate of Soda (Baking Soda)
- 2 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
To Decorate:
- 100 g Icing Sugar (Powdered Sugar)
- 1-2 tsp Boiling Water
- Sweeties (Candies)
Metric (UK) - Cups (US)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 170°c (150°c for fan-assisted ovens, Gas Mark 3-4 or 325°F) and line a couple of baking sheets with greaseproof paper. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together your butter/margarine and sugar, until light (in texture - the colour will remain darker due to the brown sugar) and fluffy. Add your golden syrup and stir through to combine.
- Sift in your flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon. Mix your dry and wet ingredients together to make a stiff dough - you will probably need to use your hands!
- Gently knead the dough together, before rolling with a rolling pin on a well floured surface, to around 0.5-1cm thick. Using your gingerbread man cutter, cut your people from the dough and transfer to your pre-lined baking sheets, leaving a little space between them. Knead together any off-cut before re-rolling the dough, until you have used it all and cut all your gingerbread people. Depending on the size of your cutter, you should get between 10-20.
- Bake your gingerbread biscuits in your pre-heated oven for 10-15 minutes. The smaller your people, the less time they will take to bake, and vice-versa.When they are golden and dry looking, remove them from the oven to cool. Be careful not to overbake your biscuits - this can happen quickly due to the presence of golden syrup in the dough.
- Once completely cool, you can decorate your gingerbread men. Mix the icing sugar with a little boiling water, adding it a teaspoon at a time until you have the desired consistency. You can use a piping bag for accuracy, or simply drizzle it in place. Finish with sweeties, such as smarties, jelly tots or chocolate chips.
