In the past week or so I have shared the Onion Jam and Glitter Honeycomb recipes that I used to make some lovely homemade Christmas presents for my loved ones. Now, I want to give you the best Gingerbread recipe I have found (and slightly adapted).
This recipe makes a lightly spiced, half bread-half biscuit textured Gingerbread which I think is delicious. And so did my recipients.
Gingerbread (makes 24 biscuits)
- 350g Plain Flour (plus a little more for rolling out)
- 1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
- 2 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 125g Butter (slightly softened at room temperature)
- 175g Light Soft Brown Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 4 tbsp Golden Syrup
- Prepare your food processor on the work surface and into the bowl sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon (if you wish you could add a teaspoon of ground nutmeg too).
- Add the butter the food processor bowl and blend. Once the mixture looks like breadcrumbs, add the sugar.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg and golden syrup. Then add to the food processor. The mixture should now clump together.
- Tip the dough onto a clean work surface and knead until you have nice smooth ball. Wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C and line several baking trays with baking paper.
- Once chilled, lightly flour your clean work surface and roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/2 cm.
- Using whatever biscuit cutters you have (gingerbread men are great here but I used simple rounds) cut out the shapes and place on the baking trays. Make sure you leave a gap between each one as they will expand in the oven.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes (depends how hot your oven is) until a light golden brown.
- Allow to cool on tray for 10 minutes before moving to a wire cooling rack.
- Either decorate to your hearts content or scoff the lot before anyone notices.
Remember, Gingerbread is for life not just for Christmas.