gingerbread men

for christmas this year, a client mailed me some home made gingerbreads in the shape of a christmas tree.... i didn't think that i was a fan of gingerbread so i took them over to my boyfriends place that afternoon. whilst i was waiting for him to get off the phone so we could go snorkelling, i decided to open the pack and try them just cause that's what i do when there's food around and i'm bored!.... and to my surprise - i devoured 4 right away before my boy came back and said 'hey - i thought they were for me!'

so, with my new found discovery that i actually LOVE gingerbread, i decided to try and make it. this recipe is from the exclusively food website.... and you'll have to excuse my dodgey decorating as i was trying to work and bake these at the same time!

ingredients

375g (2 1/2 cups) plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
2 teaspoons mixed spice (ground spice mixture consisting of cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg)
3 teaspoons ground ginger
140g butter, softened (if using unsalted butter, add 1/4 teaspoon fine table salt with the butter)
130g (1/2 cup, very firmly packed) brown sugar
125ml (1/2 cup) golden syrup or treacle
1 large egg, separated into yolk and white (we use eggs with a minimum weight of 59g)

Icing
186g (1 1/3 cups) pure icing sugar, sifted
1 large egg white or 20-30ml (1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons) water
Food colouring, optional

sift flour, bicarb, mixed spice and ground ginger together in a bowl.
beat butter and brown sugar together in a large bowl.

beat until the butter and sugar are well combined and the mixture is creamy.

add golden syrup/treacle and egg yolk to the mixture.

Bbeat for about 30 seconds, until the ingredients are well combined.

using a spoon or the electric mixer/beaters on very low speed,gradually add the flour into the butter mixture.

preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius (160 degrees celsius fan-forced).
line a large baking tray with baking paper.

using your hands, bring the dough together into a ball.

divide the dough in half. place one piece of dough between two large sheets of baking paper and roll out until 4-5mm thick.

leave dough between sheets of baking paper and place on large tray put in the freezer for at least 15 minutes

repeat the rolling and chilling process with the second piece of dough.

once dough is cold and firm, remove from freezer, transfer to kitchen bench or leave on chopping board, and remove top sheet of baking paper. working quickly, use a 12cm long gingerbread man cutter and cut out men from the dough.

transfer the gingerbread men to the lined baking tray, placing them about 2cm apart.

place it in the preheated oven. it's best to bake one tray at a time. bake for 10mins.

remove from oven and let it rest for mins before transferring to rack to cool.

when gingerbreads have cooled, make icing mixing all ingredients together and decorate!

level of difficulty: read a few times and make notes before you try

time: free parking in shopping centre almost up

end result: hi fives all 'round