gingerbread men

My wee sister came up last weekend and so I did some baking. I had bought the Peyton and Byrne 'British Baking' book which is a wee beauty. Simple, recognisable British baking - no fuss here, just good, solid recipes.

I went with the Gingerbread Men recipe as I always love biscuits that mean I get to use my biscuit cutters and because they last for a week - most baked goods need to be eaten pretty quickly but I was doing prep work as I would be working the day Emma arrived. This turned out to be a very good thing as I ended up being very ill and was in no fit state to bake or cook anything so at least there was some home baking already sorted!

Ingredients

350g plain flour
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g cold unsalted butter
150g light soft brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
4 tbsp golden syrup

The recipe says the prep time is about 15 minutes - I would say nearer 25 - unless you are super duper fast.

Method

Preheat the oven to 180c/gas 4 and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

Sift the flour, ginger and bicarb powder into a bowl.



Rub in the butter - or do what I did and use a food processor.

Stir in the sugar.

Whisk the egg and syrup in a bowl then add to the flour and butter mixture. Licking the golden syrup spoon is a nice treat!

Mix it all well to form a dough.


Flour a surface and roll out the dough. I divided the dough into two balls for this bit. The recipe says 3mm thickness - I like a thicker biscuit so went for nearer 5mm.


Dip your cutter in flour then cut out your shapes and transfer them to the tray. You can make eyes, nose and mouth using a knitting needle or sharp knife. You can also add currants for jacket buttons and eyes too if you like.


Bake for about 10 minutes or until a lovely golden brown. When ready let them cool for 1-2 minutes then transfer to a wire rack.

Store in an airtight container - they will last up to a week.