Christmas Gingerbread

Christmas. Gingerbread. Now there is a recipe to inspire family fun!

When I was about 12 I was given a scrapbook one of the very first recipes I wrote out was this one for making gingerbread.

It's my favourite version - I've tried others over the years but always come home to this.

I used to bake for my family, then my own children came along and honed their baking (and eating) skills via this recipe. All these years on Christmas wouldn't be quite Christmas without several batches of home made spicy-sweetness.

Here's how things turned out this year.

THE RECIPE

3oz butter

10oz self raising flour

1tsp baking powder

4oz brown sugar

1dessert spoon mixed spice

2tsp ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1egg

2oz golden syrup

Put the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and drop in bumps of butter, then rub it in like you're making a crumble.

In a little bowl or jug, crack the egg and mix in the golden syrup.

Then go on in with the fingers and mix it all up til it becomes a dough.

You'll get proper gooey, but that's the fun of it.  It will all come together in the end.

Then you're ready to roll. 

Actually, you're meant to chill the dough at this point. But impatience always gets the better of me and I skip that bit. 

So, pre-heat your oven to 170c, gas 3.

Then flour the worktop and rolling pin and roll out dough to about £1 coin thickness for delicate little cookies, thicker for gingerbread boys & girls, and a wee bit thicker for a gingerbread house.

Have fun cutting out shapes.

I often do some teeny tiny leaves, stars or flowers which can fit in a teaspoon to store for garnishing puddings or serving with a coffee.

Lay your shapes on a baking sheet. No need to grease or line with paper.

Bake for about 15 minutes to get very slightly soft and chewy gingerbread, add 5 minutes more for the thicker shapes, and a couple of extra minutes still for your ginger cookies to 'snap'. (That's how Mary Berry likes 'em.  I favour the gooey-chewy version personally. But we can still be friends.)

Little tip#1. If you want to add sweeties or little silver balls/currants etc stick them on before you bake.

Little tip#2. I use a knitting needle to make holes for button or eyes. To make holes for stringing the cookies onto your tree, make them bigger than you might think, as they do tend to close up as they are cooking.  

Once baked to your liking, allow to cool on the tray for a minute or two then lift onto a wire rack with a fish slice and allow to cool completely before decorating.

Use some water icing or royal icing to pipe on details, or just dust with icing sugar, or dip into melted chocolate .... Have some fun.

Make some Christmassy memories with the kids to set the next generation on their way.