When I enlisted G2’s help to decorate the Gingerbread people for the school Christmas party and gifts for their teachers…
Um… Well, the boys had fun…
This lovely Gingerbread Men recipe from Taste.com.au, although I didn’t follow the recipe exactly. It turns out, I forgot to add the egg yolk. But the recipe still works very well without it. The dough was easy to manipulate and the end cookie texture and flavour was great.
Ingredients
- 125g butter, soften
- 100g brown sugar
- 1 egg yolk (we forgot to add this but it turned out okay)
- 125ml golden syrup
- 375g plain flour (we mixed half and half white and wholemeal flour)
- 1 tsbp ground ginger
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 1 tsp bicarb soda
- M&M minis, sugar beads, and sprinkles to decorate
Royal Icing
- 1 egg white
- 150g icing sugar
- food colouring
Method
- Preheat oven to 180C.
- Line baking trays with grease proof paper (most recipes tell you to grease your trays but I find grease proof paper is the best way to make sure your cookies don’t stick to the pan)
- Beat butter and brown sugar until pale and creamy.
- Add golden syrup and egg yolk and beat until combined.
- Add in flour, ginger, mixed spice, and bicarb soda.
- Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Roll out the dough in between two sheets of grease proof paper to a thickness of 6mm. If you get the thickness just right, your cookie will be firm on the outside and soft on the inside – perfect gingerbread texture.
- Cut out shapes with Christmas cookie cutters.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until brown.
Decorating
- Whisk egg white until soft peaks form.
- Gradually add in icing sugar and continue whisking until stiff peaks form.
- Separate the icing into 3 bowls. Leave one portion white. Add green dye to the second bowl and red dye to the third bowl.
- Pipe icing over the gingerbread men to decorate. Finish with M&M minis, sugar beads and sprinkles.
Nurture for the Future 