Who doesn’t love gingerbread? These delicious cookies are easy to make and keep for a long time. You can even freeze them (prior to decorating) to always have them on hand and actually, they are even better if you eat them straight from the freezr – cold and crunchy!
To make my life easier, I make the dough ahead of time then keep it in the fridge until it is a good time to set the kids up at the table with some cookie cutters. The gingerbread men are a little tricky for kids as their arms fall off if you are not careful.
You can decorate them any way you like but I personally like the marshmallow flowers are they are quick & easy.
Enjoy,
Amanda (Simple home cook)
Gingerbread biscuits
- 125g butter, softened
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup golden syrup/maple syrup
- 1 egg, separated
- 2 ½ cups plain flour
- 1 Tbspn ground ginger
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- Smarties & marshmallows to decorate
- In a large bowl, beat butter & sugar until light & fluffy. Add golden syrup & egg yolk and beat until combined.
- Sift in flour, ginger, spice & bicarb soda. Stir until combined. It may feel a little crumbly that that is fine. Stir using the back of the spoon to mix it properly. Turn out onto a floured bench and bring together with your hands. It should look like the dough in the picture.
- Flatten dough & cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 mins or until the dough hardens a little. This will make it easier to roll and cut shapes. You can even freeze it for 15 mins to speed up the process.
- When you are ready to use the dough, preheat oven to 180 degrees C & line 2 oven trays with baking paper.
- On a heavily floured surface (bench or baking paper), roll dough to approx. 4mm thick. Cut out shapes and place onto lined oven trays.
- Bake for 10 mins or until golden. If you are decorating with marshmallows, cut them while the dough is baking so they are ready when the biscuits come out of the oven. You will need to press them on while the biscuits are still hot (see note below).
- Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. When cool, decorate with whatever you have at home. I used icing pens to draw on the men/ladies as well as smarties and skittles for buttons. Since it is summer here in Australia, I decorated a few of them in their bathers which the kids thought was hilarious.
** If you are decorating with marshmallows: cut the marshmallows in half horizontally as shown in the picture. Then cut each of those pieces in half to make 4 pieces. When the biscuits are straight out of the oven, press he marshmallows – cut side down – onto the biscuits while they are still hot. The marshmallows will melt onto the biscuits which eliminates the need to use icing to stick them down.
Post written by Amanda Arnold
My name is Amanda and I am passionate about simple, quick and affordable recipes that anyone can make. I have a facebook page called ‘Simple home cook’ where I share my recipes which will get you through your busy week that won’t break your budget. Please head over and check out my FB pages ‘Easy Family Meals’ and ‘Easy Family Meals’.