BEST GINGERBREAD EVER!

Kaylene
Dec 6, 2016
3 min read

Every year, for 15 years now, every December when Christmas rolls around I bake... a lot! And what would Christmas be without Gingerbread? Not Christmas that's what!

You might be thinking, it's just gingerbread, no big deal right? Wrong! Not when you have a twist on the traditional recipe that happened by accident 15 years ago and from that day on, gingerbread in my house has never been the same.

My gingerbread recipe is somewhat of a secret, I've only ever let a few people in on the secret ingredient...

But I've decided to spread the Gingerbread love and post my recipe below. I haven't always been a vegan so these are the traditional cookies, I will post a vegan version sometime soon.

BEST EVER GINGERBREAD!

Ingredients -

125g (4 oz) sunflower butter

1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1 egg yolk

2 1/2 cups plain flour

1 tsp bi carb soda

3 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp mixed spice (all spice)

2 1/2 tbsp golden syrup

Icing-

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

1 - 2 tbsp water

food colouring

Method -

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees, line your trays with baking paper

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add egg yolk, beat well. Gradually add sifted dry ingredients and syrup, mix well. Turn out onto floured surface and knead lightly.

2. Roll out to approx 5mm thickness, use your preferred cookie cutter, I like to use trees because you can get the most out of your dough without having to re- roll it out too much, and also you can fit loads on one tray if you top and tail them.

3. Cook in a preheated oven for 10 minutes. They should be just slightly brown, but not crispy. Keep and eye on the bottom and do not overcook. Remove from the oven and let stand/cool for five minutes to firm up and the heat from the tray will cook them the last little bit without overcooking.

4. Transfer your cookies all in a row, right way up, this will make it easier for icing, especially with tree's. Let them fully cool before decorating.

5. Mix up your icing making it whatever colour you want. You want the consistency to be quite thick but still runny enough to pipe, trial and error is really the go here. I give my tree's a quick squiggle starting at the star (top) and working my way down. After the first few you will get a good rhythm going. This is the point to add any other decoration before the icing sets. Great time to get the kids to help as they can follow behind you an add cachous for stars/baubles.

6. Once decorated, leave to set, you want the icing hard so it doesn't squash. Your all done...oh wait!

THE DISHES....!!!!

These babies will keep for a week or two in an airtight container. Your climate will decided how long they will last for, though I doubt very much you will have to worry about them going bad...trust me they won't last that long!!

So that's it...the cat's out of the bag!

Happy baking!

As always, leave me comment, I'd love to know how you like the Best Gingerbread Ever!

Follow me on social media and snap a pic, upload it to Instagram and hashtag it #ddhchristmas