Baking Gingerbread

There's just something so Christmassy and lovely about the smell of gingerbread baking in the oven. I made it for the first time last year, and it's a pretty simple recipe so I thought I'd take some photos this time and share it with you.

Gingerbread is perfect as a little home-made gift, or just to bring round if your'e visiting a friend. The recipe I used is from last years Kikki.K Christmas catalogue and is super yummy!

 (On a side note, Kikki.K has some great gift packs if you're Christmas shopping for stationery lovers!)

This recipe makes 60-70 cookies. I didn't read that part last year and decided to double the recipe... That was a big mistake - unless you want a crazy amount of gingerbread!

Ingredients

For the Gingerbread:

* 200g butter

*250ml golden syrup

*400g white sugar

*1 tbsp ground cloves

*1 tbsp ground ginger

*1 tbsp cinnamon

*250ml cream

*1 tbsp bicarbonate soda

*7-8 cups plain flour

For the Icing:

*2 large egg whites

*2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

*3 cups icing sugar (sifted)

*food colouring

Method:

Gingerbread

*Note - you'll need to prepare the dough a day in advance

1. In a medium saucepan on low heat, melt the butter and combine the syrup, sugar, spices and cream.

2. Pour the mixture into a large mixing bowl and add the bicarbonate soda and 7 cups of flour. Mix to combine ingredients into dough.

3. Leave the dough to rest in the fridge overnight

*I suggest taking the dough out of the fridge about 10 minutes before you plan to roll it out so it has time to warm up a bit (otherwise it's very hard to work with!)

4. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius

5. On a floured bench, work the mixture with your hands as you add the remaining flour. 

This is what the recipe said, but I basically just scooped out a chunk of dough from the bowl, added flour as needed and rolled it out as thin as I could. 

6. Cut out shapes using your cookie cutters and place on a tray lined with baking paper

I actually found it easier to roll out the dough, transfer it onto a piece of baking paper and roll it out again a bit more thinly. This way you don't have to transfer the cookies from the bench to the paper and risk decapitating the poor gingerbread man.

7. Bake for 5-6 minutes or until golden brown

8. Cool on a wire rack - Ensure the gingerbread is completely cool before you start icing them. 

Icing

1. Beat the egg whites with the lemon juice or vanilla extract until frothy

2. Add the sifted icing sugar and beat on low speed until all combined, smooth and shiny

3. Beat at high speed for about 5 minutes until stiff and glossy

4. Separate into bowls and add food colouring

5. Scoop into sealable sandwich bags, cut a tiny hole in one corner and pipe the designs onto the gingerbread. 

I made a mistake with the yellow and cute the hole a little too big so ended up with quite thick icing. Just experiment and you'll find the best way to manipulate it.

I hope you enjoyed!

Let me know if you give them a try!

Lauren

xxx