Monday, November 30, 2009

Christmas Baking - Part 1

I would have to say that the time of the year I find the most enjoyable is when the Christmas baking begins!

This year I started a little bit earlier than usual for a couple of reasons:
  1. I actually had the energy to do it
  2. It was cooler on the weekend than I expect it to be for the next couple of weekends
  3. Our Thursday night craft group have plans of doing a 'communal' craft and decorating gingerbread people for the night this week.
I managed to bake a grand total of 60 gingerbread people, 25 gingerbread stars, 7 mini gingerbread houses and a plain cookie santa sleigh which will be 'pulled' by 9 biscuit reindeers. Not a bad effort if I may say so myself, but I did have to have a nap in the middle of baking it all! Here is a picture of the pile of biscuits:


The recipe I used will definitely be going into the Christmas Traditions Book (which I am going to be working on this week also). Here is a copy of the recipe I used:

Gingerbread

Ingredients
125gm of butter
100gm of brown sugar
1/2 cup of golden syrup
1 egg, separated
2 1/2 cups of plain flour
1 tbs of ground ginger

Method
  1. Preheat oven to 180°C and cover trays with baking paper.
  2. Use an electric beater to beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and creamy.
  3. Add the golden syrup and egg yolk and beat until combined.
  4. Stir in the flour and ginger.
  5. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Press dough into a disc. Cover with gladwrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.
  6. Once rested, place the dough onto a sheet of baking paper and roll out until approximately 4mm thick. Cut out gingerbread people using a cutter and place on trays roughly 3cm apart.
  7. Bake in the oven for 7 minutes or until brown (watch carefully as they burn VERY easily). Remove from the oven and transfer to a rack to cool.

The recipe is particularly good as it does not produce a 'strong' gingerbread flavour so it is perfect for the kids!

I will post a photo later in the week of the iced gingerbread people!

1 comment:

  1. *drool*
    Mmmmmmm Gingerbread.

    I still plan to make a gingerbread castle.... maybe it needs gingerbread soldiers too! :O

    ReplyDelete

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