Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Xmas Post :: a {she} state of mind - Gingerbread Love Gifts


Guest Blogger - a {she} state of mind
madeit.com.au/ashestateofmind


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Every Christmas my girls, Tahlia and Ellie get their baking grove on to make and decorate a batch (or two) of gingerbread to give to their cousins on Christmas Day. I think the part they like best is selecting the lollies they use to decorate the gingerbread


There are many Gingerbread recipes out there but we use this recipe from one of the girls’ cookbooks each year. The recipe is easy to follow and it makes Gingerbread that is nice and soft (just the way I like it).

Gingerbread
This recipe makes approx 25 medium size cookies or 15 large gingerbread peeps

115g butter
1 tsp baking soda
4 tablespoons golden syrup
2tsp ground ginger
175g soft brown sugar
1 beaten egg
340g plain flour

Preheat oven to 190c and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Put the butter, sugar and syrup in a saucepan on a very low heat. Stir with a wooden spoon until all ingredients have melted.

Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl and stir in all of the wet ingredients. Mix together and then knead it into a ball. Wrap in cling wrap and pop it into the fridge for 1/2hr.

Sprinkle your bench and rolling pin with flour and roll the dough until it is approx 1/2cm thick.

Use your biscuit cutters to cut out some shapes and put them onto the baking tray.

Bake the biscuits for 10 to 15 minutes until they are golden brown (keep an eye on them). Pop them on a wire rack to cool.

To decorate the biscuits you will need:


Lollies, lots and lots of lollies. This year we are using fruit sticks, mini marshmallows, M&Ms, mini M&Ms and some liquorice allsorts (sliced thinly). When the biscuits are cold, make up an icing mixture to use as the “glue” to hold the lollies to the biscuits by mixing 1 cup icing sugar mixture, 1 tsp butter and a splash of boiling water. Keep adding water until a nice consistency is achieved (you may need to add another splash during the decorating process as the mixture hardens).



We use toothpicks to spread the icing onto the biscuits but of course you can use a piping bag too. Now in years gone by I was known to hover and make sure they were doing it “just right”....of course just because my eyes think it’s just right doesn’t mean their eyes do. So because this is their gift to their cousins I sit back and enjoy an hour of quiet time while they get to create their little masterpieces.



After the icing has set the girls pop some gingerbread into a bag for each cousin and add a little Christmas touch. This year we are using clear plastic bags tied with ribbon and decorated with some holy (from Woolworths) and some little jingle bells (available from spotlight). The girls stamped this sweet image onto some white card and added a handwritten message to the back.


And ta da...one down, eight more bags to go!

3 comments:

  1. How lovely is your blog post, and thank you for sharing your recipe. Will have to try this one out :-)
    Suzi from Little Pipika

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree! They look delicious. What a lovely gift!

    ReplyDelete
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