Gingerbread men always remind me of my grandmother as we were either making them together or enjoying eating them together. This recipe can be used for gingerbread men or other gingerbread shaped biscuits depending on what cutters you have. Gingerbread cookies are a great way to create Christmas or party themed biscuits. They are also a great way to get the kids involved as they will love to help decorate their men and Christmas shapes.
Ingredients
- 75g light brown soft sugar
- 2 tablespoons golden syrup
- 1 tablespoon black treacle
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 rounded teaspoon ground ginger
- pinch of cloves
- finely grated zest of half an orange
- 95g butter/margarine
- half a teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 225g plain flour sifted (plus a little more if needed)
- 1 tube of white writing icing/sweets/chocolate/raisins (to decorate)
Method
- Put the sugar, syrup, treacle, water, spices and zest in a large saucepan and bring to the boil stirring continuously.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and bicarbonate of soda. (You may find it better to cut the butter into lumps first).
- Gradually stir in the flour until you have a smooth manageable dough. Add a little more flour if you think it needs it.
- Leave the dough covered in a cool place to firm up. This may take approx 30 mins.
- Pre-heat an oven to 180°C, gas mark 4. While the oven is heating, roll the dough out to 3mm thick on a lightly floured surface.
- Cut out the gingerbread men, or cookie shapes as desired and re-roll the dough as necessary.
- Arrange the cookies on baking sheets and bake near the centre of the oven for 10-15 minutes. The biscuits are done when they feel firm to the touch.
- Allow them to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer them to a wire cooling rack.
- Decorate as desired with icing, sweets and jellies.
Great Cookie Recipe Cookbooks
Why not check out the following cookie cookbooks. They contain tons of great cookie and biscuit recipes, and they aren’t only for Christmas, so you can make tasty cookies all year round. They are available in paperback, hardback and on Kindle devices too.
- All Time Favourite Christmas Cookie Recipes (Rose Michaels)
- Best Christmas Cookie Recipes: Easy Holiday Cookies 2014 (Katie Cotton)
- The Star Wars Cook Book: Wookiee Cookies and Other Galactic Recipes (Robin Davies)
- The Cookie Book: More Than 200 Great Cookie, Biscuit, Bar and Brownie Recipes (Catherine Atkinson)
Great Cookie Cutters!
Cutting out gingerbread men and other shapes by hand really is quite difficult so we suggest that you take a look at our choice of cookie cutters!
