Gingerbread

A gorgeous friend of mine asked me for a gingerbread recipe. The recipe below I have used for years making gingerbread houses and cookies, it is  super easy and tastes great!

You will need

3 1/2 cups of self raising flour

1 cup of plain flour

2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon of ground ginger 

1 cup of firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 cup of pure icing sugar

180g of unsalted butter

1/2 cup of golden syrup 

2 medium eggs 

Icing 

3 cups of pure icing sugar

2 egg whites

Method 

1. Combine flours, cinnamon, ginger, sugars, and butter in a food processor and process until mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.

2. In a jug whisk golden syrup and eggs, add to food processor and process until dough just starts to come together. 

3. Place dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. 

4. Cut dough into two pieces and refrigerate for 3-4 hours, making sure dough is well chilled. 

    *very important to work with chilled dough so dough maintains shape and you avoid spreading of          dough.

5. Once chilled roll dough out between two sheets of baking paper until at least 5mm thick. 

6. Whether you are making a house or cookies you will need to : 

     - using  a pattern you have created as a cut-out guide to cut house pieces and place in a single layer on lined baking tray. 

     - press out cookie shapes and place in a single layer on a lined baking tray.

  Freeze for 15-20 minutes, until firm.

7. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

8. Place gingerbread on room temperature trays and bake for 15 minutes or until firm. Cool on trays.

9. When gingerbread is completely cooled you can begin decorating cookies or creating your gingerbread house. 

10. To make icing for gingerbread house, in a electric mixer beat egg whites until soft peaks form and gradually add icing sugar. Beat until thick. 

      *when joining together you may need support to hold walls up and unopened cans of food are perfect until icing dries. 

11. To decorate cookies or ginger bread house use a piping bag or if you don't have a piping bag a snap lock bag with one corner trimmed will work perfectly. Use lollies to decorate house or cookies. 

If you have any questions just leave a message in the comments below, I hope you have fun!