Gingerbread men

Around the Christmas period, I made a whole batch of gingerbread men from scratch, from quite a few recipes. I received one from the Bourke Street Bakery cookbook, which yielded way too many (1.125 kg flour anyone?) and a few others I trialed. In the end I concluded that this simple one from taste.com yielded the best batch.

Gingerbread Men from taste.com

• 150g butter, chopped
• 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, sifted
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger, sifted
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, sifted
• 3 cups plain flour, sifted
• milk chocolate bits, to decorate 

Method:

• Place butter, sugar and honey in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil. Remove from heat. Stir in bicarbonate of soda. Transfer to a large, heatproof bowl. Cool. 

• Stir in egg, ginger, mixed spice, baking powder and flour until combined. Divide dough in half. Shape into discs (I just put the dough into the bowls rather than shaping them into domes). Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm (I suggest longer coz after an hour, the dough was still a bit soft to cut and transfer). 

• Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease 3 baking trays. Line with baking paper. Roll 1 dough disc between 2 sheets of baking paper until 3mm thick. Using a 7cm gingerbread man cutter, cut shapes from dough, re-rolling dough scraps. Place, 2cm apart, on prepared trays. Repeat with remaining pastry disc. 

• Bake, 1 tray at a time, for 8 minutes or until just firm to touch. Stand on trays for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 

I underbaked these a little so they were soft and moist. The batch of stars above were cooked for10 mins for a crunchier texture which were great for when my "mature" friends starting playing with them. The original recipe actually provides directions on how to make royal icing to decorate them, but I bought some from the supermarket so my friends could ice their own.

Also, rather than rolling them between baking paper, I floured the surface of a bench and rolled it directly onto that instead. Personally, it worked a lot better for me.

My friend lent me her set of Aldi cookie cutters and after using them, I bought myself a set too. $7 for 30 different cutters - kudos to Aldi for stocking great bargain baking goodies.

It's been great making lots of Christmas related goodies and enjoying them with friends over the holiday season. This recipe is definitely a keeper, it's particularly child friendly (of course, after melting the butter and sugar over the stove). I made another batch with the neighbour's kids and pre-freezed them so we just cut and baked them. So much fun and tasty!