Festive baking
I spent an evening this week baking enough Christmas cookies to sink a ship (or host a Finishing School Christmas party). If you’d like to have a go at making your own, here’s my nan’s recipe. You might want to kit yourself out with a nice set of cookie cutters before you start and these vintage metal ones I found on Etsy are absolutely perfect. The Cakes, Cookies and Craft Shop also do a great set in the shape of Christmas baubles.
Preparation time: 20 minutes – or more if you’re singing along to a Christmas compilation
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes – or more if you’re like me and get carried away and baking several batches!
Makes: 25 gingerbread figures
Ingredients
125g unsalted butter
100g dark muscovado sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
325g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Method
Preheat the oven to 170°C, gas mark 3. Line baking trays with baking paper. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a medium saucepan, stirring occasionally, then remove from the heat.
Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into a bowl and stir the melted ingredients into the dry ingredients to make a stiff dough.
Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and roll to a thickness of about 5mm. Dip biscuit cutters into flour before cutting the dough. Place the shapes onto the lined baking trays and bake, in batches, for 9-10 minutes until light golden brown.
Remove from the oven. While still warm, and using a skewer or chopstick, make any holes that you will need to hang up the biscuits with ribbon or to make a yuletide garland. If you are decorating your Christmas cake with gingerbread people, make the holes in their arms so that ribbon can be threaded through at a later stage.
When completely cool, decorate with the icing. The gingerbread biscuits can be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks.
And for the finishing touches: Writing Icing; sweets; sparkles; and ribbon.
