needs more sugar

Love, love, LOVE gingerbread! I used to go at stay over at Grandma’s house when I was on school holidays as a kid, and one of my best memories of staying for a few days was when we made gingerbread together in the kitchen. (Grandma would let me eat a bit of the uncooked dough too – so good!).

When Mum and Dad would come and pick me up to go home I usually took them some gingerbread that Grandma and I made together.

Ingredients:
(The amount it will make depends on the size and shape of cutter you use)

Melted butter, to grease
125g butter at room temperature
100g brown sugar
125ml golden syrup
1 egg, separated
375g plain flour
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
Plain flour, to dust

Icing:

150g icing sugar sifted
Food colourings

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C
2. Use an electric beater to beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and creamy
3. Add the golden syrup and egg yolk and beat until combined
4. Stir in the flour, ginger, mixed spice and bicarb soda
5. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth
6. Press dough into a disk
7. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest
8. Place egg whites in a clean, dry bowl. Use an electric beater to beat until soft peaks form.
9. Gradually add icing sugar and beat until stiff peaks form
10. Divide the icing across 3 bowls, cover one bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge.
11. Add red icing to 1 bowl and stir until combined, add green to the remaining bowl and stir until combined – cover both with plastic wrap and pop in the fridge
12. When you remove the cough, place it between 2 sheets of baking paper and roll out until about 4mm thick. Use a gingerbread man (or any shape you like, really) to cut out shapes
13. Place on trays about 3cm apart.
14. Repeat steps 8 and 9 with any remaining dough
15. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown, transfer to a wire rack to cool
16. Place prepared icings in small plastic bags and cut a hole in the corner of each (or piping bags if you have them).
17. Pipe icing over gingerbread people to decorate.

Crumbs..

• Let the gingerbread cool for at least 30 minutes before icing.

This entry was posted on October 21, 2010 at 6:24 am and is filed under biscuits & cookies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.