Its Christmas time!
I love Christmas, and believe it such a great time to focus on family and food and being together. Decorating the Christmas tree, listening to carols. I love it all. Except the fact that its like 30 C over Christmas in Australia.
Now listen, I don’t really like gingerbread cookies. To be honest, I never liked gingerbread biscuits at all until I tried these.
What I’m saying is, if you like gingerbread biscuits, then these are for you. And if you don’t like gingerbread cookies, then these are totally for you too.
They are super good. They are the only gingerbread men I like. The best I have ever had. And the little guys are just so cute!
These cookies are crunchy, and they stay crunchy for days, with just a hint of softness in the centre. They are not overly gingery, but just have that perfect, delicate amount of spice.
They smell like Christmas . They taste like Christmas. And they are great Christmas gift.
And I’m sorry I’m posting them so late and so close to Christmas, but I bake in real time, and I made these biscuits yesterday!
- FOR THE GINGERBREAD
- 1.25kg plain flour (7½ cups)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 2tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 400g unsalted butter, softened (7 oz)
- 400g brown sugar (7 oz)
- 320g honey (11 oz)
- 1 egg
- 4 egg yolks
- FOR THE ROYAL ICING
- 250g icing sugar (2 cups, 9 oz)
- 1 egg white
- ½ tsp lemon juice
- To make the gingerbread dough, mix the flour, salt, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg together in a large bowl and set aside.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar and honey until pale and creamy. Add the egg and egg yolks, beating after each addition.
- Turn your mixer onto a low speed and add the dry ingredients in three batches, beating after each addition until combined. You may need to switch to a dough hook if your paddle attachment can't handle it.
- Divide the dough into two discs, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes, or for up to 3 days.
- When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F) and line several trays with baking paper. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow it to soften slightly.
- Roll out each disc between two sheets of baking paper until it is about 3mm (1/8 inch) thick. Cut out the shapes of your choice with a cookie cutter. Gather the leftover dough together and repeat the process until you have used all the dough. The dough it quite sticky so work fast.
- Place the cookies on the lined baking trays and bake, in batches, for 15-20 minutes, until puffed and golden. Allow the cookies to cool on the trays.
- To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Place the egg white in a separate large bowl and add 1 tablespoon of the icing sugar. Using a wooden spoon, beat to form a smooth paste. Keep adding the icing sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, combining well after each addition. Stir in the lemon juice.
- Place the icing in a piping bag fitted with a fine nozzle and pipe your desired decorations onto your gingerbread men.
- They can be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks. I packed them all up and gave them away as Christmas gifts.
- Makes 100 gingerbread biscuits. Feel free to halve the recipe.
- Happy baking!
Adapted from Bourke Street Bakery.