Gingerbread biscuits, fun when smarties are involved!

Angus has just finished his first year at school and was sent home with a spoon with his name on and the recipe for gingerbread. First order of business therefore, on the Saturday morning, was for us to make gingerbread biscuits at his request! It wasn’t until after we had made the dough did I realise school had thoughtfully provided all the dry ingredients in a jar so I didn’t actually need to supply them. Oh well, it meant we made many more biscuits to keep him going throughout the week, it also meant that we made wayyyy more mess (sorry Mummy).

INGREDIENTS

  • 350g plain flour, plus extra for rolling out
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 125g butter – cubed
  • 175g light soft brown sugar / muscavado
  • 1 x large egg
  • 4 tbsp golden syrup

METHOD

To get us started, we lined two baking trays with baking parchment paper to allow us to drop the cut out biscuits onto the trays.

When you’re ready to begin, start by sifting together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon and pour into the bowl of a food processor. Add the sugar to the mix and stir in well, to make sure all the ingredients are combined.

 

Once mixed together thoroughly, add the butter in and blend until the mix looks like breadcrumbs.

 

Lightly beat the egg and golden syrup together, add to the food processor and pulse until the mixture clumps together (we missed this shot as Angus was having way too much fun making a mess!).

Tip the dough out, knead briefly until smooth, wrap in clingfim and leave to chill in the fridge for 15 minutes (we actually chilled the dough overnight and got it out of the fridge half an hour before use to warm up a little).  From reading online you can also freeze the dough, which keeps it fresher longer, and defrost the night before hand in the fridge.

 

When you’re ready to roll the dough, preheat the oven to 180C / 350F. Then roll the dough out to a 0.5cm/¼in thickness on a lightly floured surface, not using flour means the dough is likely to stick to the board (yes we did)!

To make things easier, Angus and I cut the doughball in half and rolled out each one separately. This allowed us to pop one of the halfs in the fridge so it didn’t warm up too much and become sticky, which was good as it was a very hot day.

When your dough is at the right depth, you can then use an assortment of cutters to cut out the gingerbread shapes (not all men and women) and place on the baking tray, leaving a gap between them. Angus as you can see, used an array of different cutters, my favourite was the pterodactyl.

 

 

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly golden-brown (if your dough is thick it will require a bit more time).

Leave on the tray for 10 minutes and then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Now comes the best part, decorating your gingerbread biscuits with icing pens. Obviously Angus found it hilarious decorating his biscuits with boobies, I may have helped!

As always, I would love to know how you get on with your little one, or if you don’t have little ones, how you’ve got on yourself. Enjoy!

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