Christmas Gingerbread
Decorated by Max
These are such a winner with any child, the smaller the child the more preparation needs to be done before they actually become involved. The mixture needs to be made in advance and left to chill in the fridge for at least an hour. This takes little time and can be done in a mixer. After setting, the dough only needs to be rolled and cut with a shaped cutter. This mixture is also great to use at Christmas, cut into star and heart shapes and decorated with writing icing.
When making a large batch – double quantity – the freezer is your friend. The colder the mix after cutting the easier it is to slide them on to the baking sheet. I stamped out the shapes, pulled away any excess that came off easily and put the men into the freezer to harden a bit before moving them to the baking tray.
Kids Activity for 10 to 12 kids – 3 year old to adults had fun
- A double batch of people – large and small
- Writing icing tubes in a selection of colours
- Royal icing – in assorted colours in zip lock bags – corner cut off for piping
- Bag of Smarties
- Bag assorted lollies
- Pair of scissors (cutting lollies to shape, cutting corners of zip lock bags)
- Napkins – for each person to decorate their person on
The only rule – must show parents when finished and get someone to eat it before making another one.
Ingredients
Makes about 16 men, depending on how thick they are made and what size cutter you use.
There are a lot of spices which makes it quite strong but the flavour is very good. They are not all necessary, just use what is in the cupboard.
- 125 g butter, softened
- ½ cup dark brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 ½ cups plain flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarb soda
- ½ cup golden syrup,
- ¼ tsp salt,
- 1½ tsp ground ginger,
- 1 tsp cinnamon,
- ¼ tsp nutmeg,
- ¼ tsp ground cloves,
- ¼ tsp white pepper,
- ¼ tsp allspice
- Mixed fruit, nuts, icing, sprinkles to decorate – or mixed lollies, to go overboard use writing icing to decorate
Method
- Beat softened butter, golden syrup, and brown sugar together in a medium bowl until creamy. (paddle attachment on stand mixer)
- Add egg and beat well.
- Mix flour, baking powder, bicarb and spices together and add slowly to mixture and continue mixing until combined.
- Turn the mixture on to a piece of baking paper and gather up into 2 balls, kneading lightly, and flattening each to about 1cm thick.
- Place each disc on baking paper, cover with plastic wrap and roll the dough to about 3 – 5 ml thick.
- Refrigerate for at least one hour, or put in the freezer for less waiting time.
- Preheat oven to 170ºC and line 2 trays with baking paper.
- When the mix is cool and the oven to heat take one disc at a time – leaving the mix on the baking paper, quickly stamp out the shapes and place them on to the prepared baking tray.
- If adding nuts and fruit for decoration now is the time to do it, otherwise they can be glued on using icing later.
- Bake for 6 minutes, then turn the trays and bake for another 4 minutes until golden and firm to touch.
- Remove from oven but leave on the trays to cool enough to handle then move the people to a rack to cool completely.
- Re-roll all scraps to make more shapes, chilling (the freezer is faster) between cutting and moving.
Decoration
- Before baking – decorate with dried fruit and nuts (half cashews make great smiley mouths but watch for nut allergies when you are going to be sharing), even little balls of mixture can make buttons or eyes.
- Really easy option – When completely cool make up a fairly thick icing sugar and water mix, add a bit of food colouring and coat the entire top of each gingerbread man with the mix. Add eyes, buttons, sprinkles, lollies, dried fruit – all stick really well. Don’t put the icing too close to the edges as it will run off.
- For completely OTT decoration – writing icing, or home-made royal icing can be piped on and can keep children (and adults) amused for even longer.
- We wrapped each in a small plastic bag and stored in the freezer to give as gifts.
GINGERBREAD HOUSE
This is a bit more complicated but makes a good dough for a gingerbread house.
Wet ingredients
- 250g butter
- 250g brown sugar
- 325g golden syrup
Dry ingredients
- 800g plain flour
- 2tsp bicarb soda
- 3tbs ground ginger
- 3tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- About 1/2 a ground nutmeg clove
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
Method
- Preheat oven to 170°C, rear fan, in enough time for it to come to temperature.
- Have several baking sheets ready. You will move the cut outs on their own baking paper.
- Put the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup into a bowl and heat in the microwave, stirring occasionally, until the butter and sugar have melted and the mixture is smooth. Cook on high for another 2 minutes then allow to cool for 10 minutes
- Put the dry ingredients into the bowl in a stand mixer and give it a good whisk to make sure the carb soda and spices are incorporated through the flour.
- Put the dough hook on the mixer and pour the hot mixture over the flour mixture with the mixer running. Continue mixing until it’s smooth with no lumps of flour remaining.
- Take a portion of the dough, knead lightly, press flat, then roll it out to 6mm thick onto a piece of baking paper. Put the dough between 2 pieces of wood that are about 6mm thick. This is about the thickness of my chopping boards – which I place the width of the cutter apart.
- Cut the shapes from the rolled dough, leaving about 1cm between each piece,
and pull away the excess. Lift them, on the baking paper, onto the prepared baking sheets. Put them into the fridge until all are ready to be cooked. Repeat until all the dough is used. - Bake the pieces until they’re evenly golden. I set the timer for 12 minutes and rotate front to back and switch shelves during the cooking time. I usually add an extra couple of minutes straight on the shelves on their baking paper.
- When done remove from oven and allow to cool on the tray until firm then transfer to a wire rack or granite bench top to cool completely.
- Assemble using royal icing as glue and and decorate with all sorts of lollies (the more the better!)