Gingerbread Chaos
I know this isn't my first Christmassy post this year but seeing as I've been feeling festive since October, I think I've been pretty restrained.
I'm still in the sixth form at school, I decided this year to set up a baking society, as the art of food preparation and appreciation is an essential life skill in my book, as well as being fun and delicious! So, last week was the first session and we made lemon tarts but I'm afraid they were devoured before I could get a good photo so I made it my aim this week to snap away and blog the recipe. That turned out to be pretty easy as we ended up with 155 gingerbread shapes! (Divide that between those of us baking and you end up with 5 very full, very Christmassy girls)!
This isn't the recipe that I normally use because I felt like trying something new but I have to say, I'll never go back as the dough is so quick to make and rolling out is even easier! Feel free to add more or less ginger as I like mine quite spicy!
Ingredients (Makes around 30)
350g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
5 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
125g butter (room temperature)
175g soft light brown sugar
1 egg
4 tbsp golden syrup
Method
1. Put the flour, bicarb, ginger and cinnamon into a bowl.
2. Cut the butter into small cubes then add that too.
3. Rub between your fingertips to get a breadcrumb-like mixture.
4. The mix in the sugar.
5. Beat the egg and golden syrup in a mug then pour into the dry ingredients.
6. With a big spoon, mix all the ingredients then use your hands to knead into a ball.
7. Wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 30 mins.
8. Preheat the oven to 180C and line 2 large baking trays with baking paper.
9. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of 1 cm.
10. Using cutters, cut out the dough and spread out on the baking trays (make sure to leave gaps between as they spread in the oven).
11. Bake for 15-20 minutes until lightly golden then leave to cool and firm up!
12. Enjoy with a glass of milk or cup of tea!
Just for scale! Below are 155 gingerbread shapes that didn't last long at all!
(You'd think we aren't fed)!
Christmassy Stars!
