These are a great, delicious treat to make with the kids for Christmas! And easier than you would imagine! In our house I make the gingerbread and assemble, then leave my partner and the kids to decorate! Chaos!
As always, you can adjust the amount of spice you add or experiment with other flavours in the recipe.
You will need:
125g block butter
150g dark brown sugar
100g golden syrup
400g plain flour
1 egg
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
3tsp ground ginger
1tsp mixed spice
Royal Icing Sugar or ready made Royal Icing.
A selection of chocolates and sweets for decoration.
What to do:
Melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup gently in a pan until the sugar has dissolved.
Measure the dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix in the egg.
Add the butter/sugar mix into the dry ingredients and mix until all the flour has been combined and you have a nice smooth dough.
Pop the dough in the fridge to chill for at least an hour.
Roll dough out to a nice even thickness of about 5mm.
For the house you will need rectangles for the roof and triangles for the walls. I wrapped my November copy of Dartford Living magazine in cling film, laid it on my dough and used a pizza wheel to cut around it. Cut two of these. A good shape for the front and back walls is an equilateral triangle with all 3 sides the same length as the top edge of the DL magazine. You will need two of these as well.
Use festive cookie cutters to cut out shapes with the rest of the dough. Or cut different sized triangles to decorate as trees.
Pop the shapes back in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180° C for about 10 minutes until the edge of the shapes start to turn a darker brown.
Allow to cool fully.
Meanwhile make the icing according to the packet instructions. If you can’t find Royal Icing Sugar, use normal icing sugar and make to a thick consistency.
You can either spoon the icing or pop it into a piping bag. You could make your own piping bag using a sandwich/freezer bag. Fill with your icing then snip off the corner of the bag.
Use a cake board, chopping board or large flat plate to build your house on. Pipe a generous amount of icing along one edge of each triangle. Stand them up and place a roof rectangle on them. You can use a mug as support while the icing sets. Once set, repeat to attach the other roof piece.
Use the icing to attach sweets and chocolates on your house and pipe windows and door decorations.
Decorate your other shapes with icing and sweets.
Enjoy!
By Debbie Dickinson – The Little Lavinia Bakery