I love gingerbread men! These ones are designed not to spread while cooking, and have just the right amount of spice. My son loves helping to decorate them too.
EDIT: My mother-in-law made some delicious gingerbread cookies last Christmas – they were so good! Try the new gingerbread recipe to see which you prefer.
Ingredients:
- 125g butter, at room temperature
- Extra butter, to grease
- 110g (1/2 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar
- 2 tabs caster sugar
- 125ml (1/2 cup) golden syrup
- 1 egg, separated
- 300g (2 1/3 cups) plain flour
- 2 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon mixed spice
- 150g (1 cup) pure icing sugar, sifted
- 8-10 drops red liquid food colouring
- 8-10 drops green liquid food colouring
- Smarties, to decorate (optional)
Method:
- Preheat oven to 180°C (or 150°C fan-forced).
- Grease two flat baking trays with butter.
- Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer until pale and creamy. Add the egg yolk and golden syrup and beat until combined.
- Stir in the flour, ginger and mixed spice.
- Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Press dough into a disc, and place it between two sheets of baking paper and roll out until about 5mm thick. Use a gingerbread man cutter to cut out shapes, but do not separate shapes from the dough yet. Place the rolled dough in the freezer for 30 minutes to harden.
- After 30 minutes, remove from freezer separate the cut-out men, placing them on trays about 2cm apart.
- Repeat steps 5 and 6 with the leftover dough.
- Bake in oven for 7-10 minutes or until brown. Remove gingerbread from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.
- Place egg white in a clean, dry bowl. Use an electric beater to beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add the icing sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Divide icing evenly among 3 bowls. Add red colouring to 1 bowl and stir until combined. Add green colouring to another bowl and stir until combined.
- Place each of the prepared icings in small plastic bags (sandwich bags work well). Cut a small hole in a corner of each bag. Pipe icing over gingerbread men to decorate.
- If desired, add Smarties while the icing is still wet.
malt collective 