The Gingerbread Man!

I’ve mentioned Little Man’s love of The Gingerbread Man before – today’s story is a little happier than the previous one thankfully!

This morning was a beautiful sunny morning – the type of morning that makes you bound out of bed, full of energy and plans for the day. Even at 6.30am, I knew it was going to be a productive day. And what better way to start a productive day than with a little baking.

I wanted to make something that Little Man could help with, so since he likes the Gingerbread Man story so much, I thought he might like to make Gingerbread Man cookies.

Ingredients (makes 24)
125g butter (in small cubes)
450g plain flour
2tsp ground ginger
1tsp ground mixed spice
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
225g golden syrup

First I made the dough. It couldn’t be easier to make. Put all of the ingredients into a food processor, and blend it until it makes a smooth dough. Then wrap the dough in cling film and leave it for at least 30 minutes, until it hardens. (24 cookies is a few too many for us in one go, so I froze half the dough.)

Because this recipe uses golden syrup rather than sugar, it gets sticky when it warms up. This can make rolling the dough quite difficult! So it’s best to roll it out between two sheets of greaseproof paper.

Little Man watched intently while I rolled out the dough and explained that we were going to use it to make cookies. When it was ready, I handed him the cookie cutter, and he got to work. I greased the tray, and placed the cookies on it once he had cut them out. Before long, we had a whole tray ready for the oven.

The oven was preheated to 180C. I placed the tray in the centre of the oven, and then we waited. These cookies are fast to bake – they take about 8 minutes in my oven.

You know they’re done when they turn golden brown. And when you open the oven – ahhh! That wonderful smell of ginger and spice wafting through the house. Yummy!