Get Festive With These Easy and Delicious Gingerbread Men!

I am almost embarrassed to say this… but… I have never ever made gingerbread men (or gingerbread anything in fact).  It is one of those things that I intend to make every single Christmas, and every year December comes and goes without it ever happening.  I just think gingerbread biscuits are so cute and festive, and even if I don’t make them myself, Christmas isn’t really Christmas without them, so, this year I did it! I actually made my own gingerbread men (and trees, stars and hearts lol).  Having now made them, I feel so silly for not doing it before, because they really are so simple and they taste delicious! I used a very simple recipe which made a massive batch of biscuits, so I thought it would be nice to share the recipe with anyone else who fancies giving them a go.  This was a fun process, but what came with it, was the harsh reality that I will never ever get a spot on the Great British Bake off!  Whilst I am pretty happy with how the biscuits turned out, I learnt that I am shockingly bad at icing.  Other people make it look so easy, but it’s actually really difficult and I admire anyone who can do it well! Anyway, onto the actual biscuit recipe……. oh and here is proof of my terrible piping skills (see, I wasn’t telling lies) :(.

Ingredients

Biscuits

350g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 egg

4 tbsp golden syrup

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

125g unsalted butter

175g soft brown sugar

Icing

450g Icing Sugar

12 tbsp egg white (pasteurised)

½ tsp cream of tartar

Gingerbread Method

Step 1: Sift together the following in a food processor bowl:

• Flour
• Bicarbonate of soda
• Ginger
• Cinnamon

Step 2: Add the butter and mix until the ingredients blend together and look like breadcrumbs.

Step 3: Mix in the sugar.

Step 4: Beat the egg and golden syrup together and add to the rest of the mixture. Mix until the ingredients clump together.

Step 5: Tip the dough out and knead it briefly until it all comes together smoothly. Then its time to wrap it in clingfilm and leave to chill for about an hour in the fridge.  Can you believe that’s how easy it is to make the dough?!

Step 6: Once the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 180oc / 350F/ Gas 4. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

Step 7: Place your dough onto a sheet of greaseproof paper on a flat surface and use a second layer of paper to place on top of the dough. Some people prefer to just flour the rolling pin instead of using the greaseproof paper.

Step 8: Roll the dough out to 0.5cm in thickness and use cookie cutters to cut out your shapes.

Step 9: Place your biscuits on the baking tray, leaving a small gap between them.

Step 10: If you want to hang your gingerbread men on a tree, then make sure you poke a hole in them before cooking. The hole will close up slightly as the gingerbread bakes so make sure you make the hole big enough so that it still exists once they come out of the oven.

Step 11: Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Once baked, leave them to cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the tray and placing on a wire rack.

That’s it for the gingerbread – now onto the fun part (or not so fun part as I found out lol), decorating!

Icing Method 

Step 1: Mix icing sugar and cream of tartar together.

Step 2: Add egg whites to mixture and stir until you create a thick icing.

So when I first decided to make the gingerbread, I thought I would go all out on the decorating (expecting to be good at it) and went the full hog and even made royal icing. In hindsight however, I overpromised to myself! I completely underestimated how difficult it is to ice using the piping method.  The first shock I got was that royal icing has raw eggwhite in it.  I have been eating icing my whole life and I have only just realised this.  Am I the only person who didn’t know?! Determined to not let that put me off it, I mixed together the icing sugar, egg white  and cream of tartar.  You must ensure that the eggs which you use are pasteurised in order to avoid any risk of salmonella!  You can also buy egg whites in a carton in the supermarket which is what I did.

The idea behind the cream of tartar is that it will keep your icing looking nice and white after it sets (although, as you can see, this didn’t really work for me!).

If you find that your icing is a bit too thick, then you can add a teaspoon or two of water to it until it reaches the right consistency.  Once I had my icing made, I spooned it into a sandwich bag and snipped one of the corners off.  I did have some proper piping nozzles, which I got with my cookie cutters, but they were all too big :(.

The first attempt at piping was sadly my best one, but after that the icing just kept clumping up and getting stuck on the way out of the bag.  After about six attempts (and 6 different sandwich bags with varying hole sizes, as evident in the inconsistency of the thickness of the icing on my biscuits) I gave up.

It’s a good job that they look just as good (or better in my case) with an old fashioned dusting of icing sugar, as that’s what I resorted too!

Whilst they may not look absolutely perfect (or even close), I promise you that they taste delicious.  This really is such a simple recipe and it certainly made me feel very festive making them.  I think these gingerbread biscuits would make a lovely gift at Christmas time packaged up in a cute little box.

If all else fails and they end up not tasting so good, you can at least thread a pretty ribbon through them and hang them on your tree.

I’d love to know what festive recipes you like to use at Christmas time, and please let me know if you try this gingerbread one! Enjoy :).