Gingerbread Men & Women

Run, run, as fast as you can
You can’t catch me
I’m the gingerbread man

These gingerbread men and women are both fun and easy to make. Pass all the icing tubes over to the children to play with colours and themes to dress up their gingerbread men and women. I know they will have a ball in the kitchen and enjoy eating their own artwork too!

Makes 12 or more - depending on size of cookie cutter used

Ingredients
125g (4½ oz) butter
100g (4 oz) soft brown sugar
100ml (4 fl oz) golden syrup
1 egg, beaten
450g (1lb) plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger
1tsp mixed spice
For Decoration
Writing tubes of icing and gels in different colours – I used super cook
Silver balls or raisins - for eyes
I used miniature gingerbread sprinkles for buttons but smarties are also great for this.

Method

You will need 2 baking trays lined with non-stick paper. A gingerbread cookie cutter or draw a template out of card to cut around the gingerbread dough.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.

In a saucepan place the butter, sugar and golden syrup onto the stove on a low heat. Stir continually until all the ingredients have melted together. Leave to one side to cool just a little.

In a large mixing bowl sieve the flour, baking powder and spices. Add all the contents from the saucepan into the bowl with the dry ingredients, then add the egg and mix until all full combined. You may need to finish mixing the dough together by hand by pressing and kneading the mixture together. Flatten the dough into a circle and wrap in cling film and place into the fridge for no more than 30 minutes to chill.

On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough to 5mm (¼ in) using a gingerbread cutter or template, cut out shapes and place on the prepared baking trays. (Re-roll the dough and remain to keep cutting out shapes until all the dough is finished.)

Place into the preheated oven for 10 –15 minutes or until firm and lightly browned. Leave to cool fully on a wire rack before icing.

Decorate as you wish with writing tubes or royal icing coloured and placed into small piping bags. With a little dab of icing, add silver balls or raisins into place for the eyes, same if you are placing buttons onto your gingerbread men and women.

Leave the icing to set before eating or packing away in an airtight container.