Desserts and Baking – Gingerbread Men


Method


Gingerbread 1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C/gas mark 4. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper. 2. Beat the egg in a small bowl with a fork. 3. Sieve the flour, baking soda, ginger and mixed spice into a large mixing bowl. 4. Place the butter, syrup and sugar in a saucepan over a medium heat and stir until melted. 5. Pour the melted ingredients into the mixing bowl. Mix well. 6. Add the beaten egg and mix until it forms a dough. It will be sticky at this stage. 7. Sprinkle your work surface with flour, tip out the dough and lightly knead until smooth. 8. Gently roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin until it is about 1 cm thick.


9. Cut out gingerbread men shapes and carefully lay them on the lined baking tray, leaving some space between them as they will spread.


10. Gather any scraps, press them together, re-roll and continue cutting out shapes until all the dough has been used up.


11. Bake for approximately 12 minutes or until the biscuits are golden brown.


Icing 12. Meanwhile, squeeze the juice out of the lemon half using a juicer. 13. Sieve the icing sugar into a bowl.


14. Separate the egg by cracking it over a mixing bowl (to catch the white) and passing the yolk from one shell to the other. Put the egg yolk into another small bowl. Whisk the egg white using an electric whisk, until frothy.


15. Add the sieved icing sugar to the egg white as you are whisking, one tablespoon at a time.


17. Put the icing in a piping bag fitted with a narrow nozzle.


To decorate 18. Remove the gingerbread men from the oven. Put the baking trays on a wire rack and allow the biscuits to cool and set for a few minutes.


19. Carefully lift the gingerbread men onto the wire rack using a fish slice and allow them to cool fully.


20. Decorate by piping on features. You can use the icing to glue on small sweets for buttons.


Food For Thought


This recipe uses the melting method of baking: wet ingredients are melted and poured into dry ingredients.


the egg yolk. It can be kept for 2–4 days in the fridge and used to make aioli – see page 156 for recipe.


Tip


16. Stir in ¼–½ teaspoon of lemon juice and beat until the icing is stiff (when you tilt the bowl, the icing should not move). Add more lemon juice if required.


Do not discard


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