Irish Style Gingerbread Men: Every Old Bakery's Favourite

Looking to beat the January blues? Have a jolly little gingerbread man, made with what is to become my go-to recipe!

The gingerbread man of my childhood... a biscuit soft enough to yield easily to a single bite, with a delicious bendy chewiness and a clean, pure flavour of golden syrup and ground ginger, all topped off with naff-as-hell cooking chocolate and sweets to decorate. This style of gingerbread man is ubiquitous in Ireland, appearing in every bakery around the country from small towns to cities. It's like they all have a recipe that was taught to them in culinary college, but in all the nearly 7 years I've been blogging, I've never quite captured it.

Over the course of my blog, I have done a few different recipes for gingerbread:

• Right back at the very start I had my recipe free from dairy, gluten, and egg which I made for my friend who was intolerant to all of the above;
• I had my Dinosaur Kimberley recipe, which was essentially a regular roll out biscuit dough with some spice and golden syrup for flavour;
• I then did an egg-free gingerbread recipe, which was essentially ginger flavoured shortbread;
• After that, there was the gingerbread skeletons recipe which was my first attempt at the kind of chewy bakery style gingerbread that I love, but wasn't quite there yet;
• And most recently my Gingerbread Village Cake, which featured a cakier style that's suitable for building houses but still nice to eat.

As you can see, I've never really had a go to recipe. Mostly because all the recipes I used didn't produce a gingerbread that I really liked; they were either to dry and crunchy, too sturdy and shortbready, too cakey, or too soft and squishy. None of the recipes I've used have that X-factor that I wanted.

(Credit: the Daily Express)

Until now! From my trawling of the internet, I found a recipe that is pretty much bang on that delicious flavour of my childhood (and adulthood, admittedly: I cannot resist the charms of a pretty little gingerbread man when I pass my local bakery). Shared to the RTÉ website is a recipe for Nanny Nellie's gingerbread men, and whoever Nanny Nellie is she most likely got that secret recipe because it makes a gingerbread man almost identical to any you'd find in a bakery.

INGREDIMENTS

Makes 24 gingerbread men

12 ounces (340 grammes) plain white flour: spelt, wheat, or gluten-free

1 to 2 tablespoons (15 to 30 millilitres) ground ginger, depending on how spicy you want it

1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) bicarbonate of soda

4 ounces (115 grammes) salted butter, or margarine for an authentic experience

6 ounces (170 grammes) soft light brown sugar

3 ounces (85 grammes) golden syrup

1 medium egg

Up to 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) water, to adjust

Optional: other ground spices to taste, for example cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, etc.

To decorate

1 bar (150 grammes) milk cooking chocolate

Sweets such as Smarties, M&Ms, or Jelly Tots

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 180C (350F) and line one or two baking sheets with non-stick paper.
• Sieve the dry ingredients together onto a sheet of non-stick paper, or into a roomy mixing bowl. Set aside.
• In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter, sugar and syrup with an electric mixer until well combined. Beat in the egg.
• Add the dry ingredients bit by bit until the mixer can no longer mix, then turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured work surface and bring the dough together by hand.
• Depending on your egg, you might need to add a little water to help the dough come together, which is perfectly normal. The dough should be soft, but not at all sticky.
• This dough can be used immediately and doesn't need chilling: roll out to a thickness of an eighth inch (3 millilmetres) on a well floured surface, making sure to move it around every so often to prevent sticking.
• Cut out shapes and arrange them about an inch (2.5 centimetres) apart on the tray(s). The scraps re-roll very well.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 7 to 9 minutes, or until they look set. They will still be a little soft, but the edges will be set nicely. Don't let them brown too much!
• Allow to cool on the trays momentarily before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
• To decorate, melt the chocolate according to the instructions. Dip the gingerbread man heads and feet in the chocolate, and attach the sweets with chocolate to look like buttons. Draw smiley faces on with melted chocolate using a cocktail stick.

Adapted from: https://www.rte.ie/lifestyle/recipes/2018/1107/1009352-nanny-nellies-gingerbread-men-today/

Frohe Weihnachten! Part 5: Gingerbread Village Cake

Want a showstopping centre piece, but you're not a fan of traditional Christmas fruit cake? Here I present to you a Gingerbread Village Cake, in our fifth and final installment of my German-style biscuits series.

A delicious and mildly spicy golden syrup sponge, smothered in cream cheese icing, and decorated with gingerbread gables and a little gingerbread house, this is definitely a treat. However, it's not difficult to make: of course, there are a few steps, but none of them is a challenge.

This is a nice bit of fusion cuisine: a golden syrup sponge, of course, is not a very German style confection. Also, this particular style of gingerbread is very English: German gingerbread, known as lebkuchen, has a much much higher proportion of sugar to fat than its English cousin. Some recipes may only contain a few tablespoons of butter to half a pound of flour.

This cake stays beautifully moist for several days, just make sure it's well wrapped and airtight.

INGREDIMENTS

For one eight inch (20 centimetre) round cake

3 medium (US large) eggs

3 ounces (85 grammes) brown sugar

3 ounces (85 grammes) golden syrup

1½ ounces (40 grammes) sunflower oil
1½ ounces (40 grammes) melted butter

3 fluid ounces (85 millilitres) black tea, or warm water

6 ounces (170 grammes) plain white flour: spelt, wheat, or gluten-free

¾ teaspoon (4 millilitres) baking soda

2 teaspoons (10 millitres) ground cinnamon

2 (10 millilitres) ground ginger

Gingerbread Village dough

4 ounces (115 grammes) salted butter

4 ounces (115 grammes) soft brown sugar

2 ounces (55 grammes) golden syrup, warmed

1 medium (US large) egg

8 ounces (225 grammes) plain white flour: spelt, white, or gluten-free
 ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) baking soda

2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) ground ginger

¼ teaspoon (1 millilitre) ground cloves

To decorate

1¼ pounds (570 grammes) cream cheese icing
Sweets
Desiccated coconut
Icing sugar, for dusting

~ ^_^ ~

METHOD

First, make the biscuits

• In a saucepan, melt the golden syrup, sugar, and butter over medium-high while stirring. Once it starts to bubble, take it off the heat and allow to cool.
• Once cool, beat in the egg. Sieve in the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon and stir until there is no more dry flour visible.
• Pour the mixture onto a sheet of cling film, and wrap well. Chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.
• When you're ready to cook, preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4) and line two baking trays with non-stick paper.
• On a floured surface, roll the dough out to just under a quarter-inch (4 millimetres) and cut into one small gingerbread house, and using the rest make some gingerbread house-fronts. I freehand all my gingerbread house pieces and house-fronts, but if you have templates, you can use that.
• Bake the biscuits for 8 to 10 minutes, depending on how soft or crunchy you like your gingerbread. Once cooked, cool completely on a wire rack.

Secondly, make the cake

• Preheat the oven to 170C, and grease the bottom of an eight inch (20 centimetre) round tin and line with non-stick baking paper. Leave the sides ungreased to help the cake rise.
• In a jug, melt the butter, golden syrup, and oil in the microwave on Defrost. You don't want it hot, just melted.
• Separate the eggs, putting the whites into a large roomy bowl with a pinch of salt, and mix the yolks into the jug of butter and syrup. 
• Whip the egg whites with an electric mixer on medium speed until the eggs have soft peaks. Gradually whip in the brown sugar, bit by bit, until you have firm peaks.
• Take a spoonful of the meringue and stir into the jug to lighten the mixture. Pour this back into the meringue and fold through gently with a balloon whisk or a metal spoon.
• Sieve in the flour, baking soda, spices, and a pinch of salt in two additions, alternating with the tea (or warm water). Fold the mixture thoroughly until you have a nice, flowing batter.
• Pour into the tin and make on the centre shelf for 45 minutes to an hour, or until nice and springy to the touch, and a skewer poked into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Now, assemble the masterpiece

• Use some icing to assemble the gingerbread house: I decorated mine with mini Smarties and some desiccated coconut.
• Slice the cake in half, keeping the dome. Sandwich and coat the cake with icing, keeping the dome on top.
• Arrange the gingerbread house-fronts around the edge of the cake and secure with a bit of twine while it sets. Place the house on top of the cake.
• Allow the whole cake to set before serving, about an hour.

Gingerbread Skeletons (Egg Free) with Video!

About two or so years ago, a friend of mine came to visit me around Halloween time, and she brought to me a small gingerbread man with a skeleton iced onto it; it was branded as a "Jack the Skeleton" biscuit, which made me chuckle. Ever since then, I've been curious about making some myself, but have had difficulty finding a gingerbread recipe that mimicked the soft, chewiness of the Jack the Skeleton biscuit.

This recipe, unlike the usual recipe I use, has a high ratio of sugar and syrup to flour, which renders the need to use egg as a binder redundant. Also, if you replace the butter with some good ol' margarine this recipe can be completely vegan! The icing is a very simple mix of butter, icing sugar, and water, so this doesn't use the traditional royal icing decoration. 

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

DIFFICULTY

Requires mixing, rolling out, and cutting shapes

TIME

About 3 hours

RECIPE RATING

Easy!

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

INGREDIMENTS

Makes six 3 inch gingerbread men

4 ounces (115 grammes) white spelt flour

¼ teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ginger

1 teaspoon mixed spice

One pinch to a ¼ teaspoon ground cloves, to taste

2 ounce (55 grammes) unsalted butter, or margarine

2 ounces (55 grammes) golden syrup

2ounces (55 grammes) dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

To decorate

2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) melted unsalted butter, or margarine
2 ounces (55 grammes) icing sugar, sieved
Water, to mix

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

FREE FROM

Eggs, nuts, wheat

CONTAINS

Spelt, dairy (italics show alternatives), refined sugar

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

METHOD

First, make the biscuits

• In a jug or bowl, heat the butter, syrup, and sugar in the microwave at 50% power for a minute at a time until the butter has melted and the syrup is runny. Mix well.
• Sieve the flour, salt, spices, and baking soda into a mixing bowl, make a well in the centre, and pour in the melted butter and syrup mixture. Mix with a spatula or spoon until you have a very soft dough.
• Pour the dough out onto a piece of cling film, and wrap it up. Pop it into the fridge for an hour, or until firm.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4), and line one or two flat baking trays with non-stick paper.
• Roll the dough out on a floured surface to a quarter inch (5 millimetres) thick, and cut into gingerbread man shapes. Re-roll the scraps, trying not to mix in too much of the flour dusting.
• Lie the gingerbread men out on the tray(s), and chill for about 10 minutes before baking on the centre shelf of the oven for only 6 to 7 minutes for soft chewy biscuits, or up to 9 minutes for crispy biscuits.
• After the biscuits are baked, remove the tray(s) from the oven and cool the biscuits on the tray for about 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

To decorate

• Mix the icing sugar and melted butter together in a small bowl, adding only enough water to make a thickly flowing icing.
• Make a small baking paper piping cone, and fill halfway with icing. Snip off the end, and pipe on the skeleton bodies.
• Allow to set for about 30 minutes before serving.

STORAGE

These keep for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container at room temperature.

Gingerbread Pandas (Wheat Free with a Dairy Free Option)

For my little sister (well, not so little now: she is eighteen after all), I indulged in her somewhat avid fascination with pandas and made her some gingerbread versions!

This was my first foray into dipping in thinned royal icing. I had considered dipping them completely in white chocolate, but I thought I'd give royal icing dipping a go instead; I felt that dipped fully in white chocolate, then dipped in certain places in dark chocolate, would be super chocolate overkill. Besides, the crunchy sugary coating in these ones makes me think of ice, which is appropriate.

To make the bears, I used this dough recipe, using golden syrup and adding a pinch or two of ground nutmeg. I then chilled it for about an hour before rolling out to about a quarter inch (3 millimetres) thickness and cutting out with a bear cutter. I baked them for about 10 minutes, until they were a little browned around the edges

I used some royal icing that I had made to ice the Christmas cake (these days, blasphemously, I use packs of instant royal icing because it's so much more convenient), and thinned it out with some cold water, a teaspoon at a time, until it resembled melted chocolate; a nice, running consistency. I dipped the front of the bears in the glaze, let the excess drip off while gently tapping the hand holding the biscuit off the side of the bowl, then put in on a wire rack. I cleaned up any uneven edges with a cocktail stick.

It took about an hour for the glaze to dry, and I then used melted dark chocolate to add details: dark legs, torso, ears, eye patches, and facial features. I used some royal icing at piping consistency to add eyes.

I was very pleased with how these little guys turned out! I hope my sister thinks they're as cute as I do...

Gingerbread House Part II: Baking and Assembly

Assuming that you have read Part I of my gingerbread construction saga, this is how I made the templates into a reality. As I said, I used regular white card to make the templates of the walls and chimney. At this point, no template exists for the roof, as I drafted that with paper after I assembled the gingerbread walls.

The house pattern includes:

• 2 side walls,
• 1 front/back wall,
• 1 front/back chimney,
• 1 top of chimney, and
• 1 side of chimney.

I made a batch of gingerbread dough using the method in this recipe, and the following ingredients:

• 1 ounce (30 grammes) treacle
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) butter, or margarine, at room temperature
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) light brown sugar
• 1 medium egg
• 9 ounces (250 grammes) spelt flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground coriander
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• Pinch of salt

Unlike the original recipe, I use all spelt flour and no cornflour. The cornflour makes the gingerbread crumbly: nice texture to eating, but not as structurally sound. I divided the dough into two discs, wrapped them in cling film, and refrigerated them overnight. This is important, as it makes the dough good for handling, and not too sticky.

The next day, I sprinkled my work surface with flour and rolled out the dough to a thickness of a quarter inch (5 millimetres). I then cut out the pieces by laying them on the dough and cutting around them with a pizza wheel. I flipped the Front/Back template over to get the back of the house, and did the same with the triangular chimney template. I had to re-roll the dough once or twice, I think.

As pictured below, I cut a door and two jaunty windows out of the front part of the house, and two more windows out of the back. I filled them up with crushed boiled sweets, which then melted to create stained glass windows. This is a great little trick.

Once they were cooked, I allowed them to cool completely before moving them so the windows didn't get destroyed. Once all the pieces were cooked, the construction began! I used some royal icing (to my shame, I used the instant kind) and dyed half of it a cement grey colour, and the other half orange. I put the icing in two disposable icing bags, and cut a wide opening (about 5 millilitres) on the dark one, and a narrow opening (about 2 millilitres) on the orange one.

I stood the back of the house up, glued the sides on, and used cans to keep everything in place while it was setting. After the icing was set, I put the back of the house flat on the board, ends of the walls pointing up, so I could safely glue the front of the house on without destroying the delicate windows or the sides of the doorway.

I had bought a load of Smarties, jelly beans, and pretzel sticks from the shop, and I stuck them all on with the dark royal icing before adding flourishes with the orange icing. This was really just a going with the flow creative experience: I didn't plan what it would look like, I just go absorbed in it. I also did the chimney, as you can see.

Once everything was fused together, I draped a piece of paper over the pitched roof and drew a template for the roof slates. I made the roof slates out of dark chocolate, and decorated them with orange royal icing. To make the scalloped edges, I first piped the outline with royal icing, which I broke off when the roof slates were set. I stuck the roof slates on with the dark icing, using more cans to prop them up so they wouldn't slide off the roof while the icing was setting. 

I then stuck on the chimney piece; I was convinced it would go right through the roof, but the chocolate was surprisingly strong. I then did some more flourishes with the orange icing, making a roof cap tiles effect.

This was intensely fun, and took quite a lot of time. I'd say from start to finish took about 4 or 5 hours. It was so worth it, even if I didn't end up entering it into the competition. It did however get pride of place on the counter top in the gallery coffee dock...

THIS TIME IN 2014: Salted Caramel Shortbread (Wheat Free)
THIS TIME IN 2013: No blog

Gingerbread House Part I: Drafting the Template

Right. I will explain the entire process of making the gingerbread house from start to finish, from sketching to adding the last little flourishes.

First of all, I took to my sketchbook to do a few doodles about what I'd like my gingerbread house to look like. This is the first step I take for pretty much anything, even birthday cakes. I start drawing and let my imagination take me in whatever direction it pleases.

Here are the pages of my sketchbook that I dedicated to my design:

On the left are some generic putting-ideas-down drawings (including some designs for a completely different gingerbread skeleton idea I had based on the teddies holding sweets biscuits I did for my Picnic Afternoon Tea Party). 

On the right is a more concrete concept for the front of the house, showing the front of the house and one side of the chimney.

These two pages are some actual teasing out how it will be made sketches. My first concept for the roof slates was to make two royal icing run outs (plaques), but then I decided to use dark chocolate decorated with royal icing instead.

The next step was to turn the sketches, doodles, and scribbles into reality. To do this, I traced the drawing that I did of the front of the house onto some card, and used that to guide me in making the other parts of the template: the two walls and the individual parts of the chimney.

I used a ruler to measure the two sides of the front of the house and used the measurements to judge the height of the two walls. I then I chose how deep I'd make the house (I decided about 4 inches (10 centimetres) would be enough) and used this to measure the width of the walls. I used a similar process to design the chimney templates.

I designed the roof template after I had baked and assembled the walls of the house. Once I had assembled the house with royal icing, I folded a piece of paper in half and draped it over where I would like the roof to be, and traced around where the gingerbread touched the paper. I then extended the edges by about about half an inch (a centimetre) to give the roof a nice overhang.

To make sure I knew how to put it together, I drew little guidelines and indicators on the edges of the templates. This way I'd know which way around everything had to be.

I apologise for not having more pictures to show you the process in detail! I was so busy doing the actual project that I didn't think ahead to writing about it. But, when I get round to making my Christmas gingerbread house, I'll be a little more thorough.

For how to bake and assemble the house, keep an eye on Monday's upload CLICK HERE!

THIS TIME IN 2014: Spelt Doughnuts Video Tutorial!

THIS TIME IN 2013: Confectionery Failures and New Job (thus Temporary Pause in Blogging)!

January Afternoon Tea Party: Gingerbread Elephants and Chocolate Brownies (Wheat Free)

Last November I decided to throw a monthly tea party at my community centre, which has an open invitation; the rule is basically show up with something to eat and you can come in and share everything else everyone has made and partake in conversation, games, movies, or whatever we're doing.

January's theme was Bollywood, or some bizarre reason. I mentioned at the last party that I'd always wanted to have a Bollywood house party, and the others caught on to the idea and thought it'd be cool to it for out next tea party.

As such, I decided to go with some Indian themed biscuits: gingerbread elephants! I remember as a kid getting a gingerbread elephant (and I wax lyrical about the experience in this blog post) and I've always wanted to recreate it. So: another baking achievement unlocked! I also made a batch of the old faithful chocolate browies, some topped with sprinkles, some with chopped nuts.

 So, in this post I'll just describe the elephants a bit more. I used the same gingerbread recipe as in my Christmas gingerbread houses and stars, and again used instant royal icing that I coloured using gel food colours, and the eyes are M&Ms. I used greaseproof paper piping bags.

The gingerbread elephant I ate had a colourful rug on its back, which is a typical British colonial image of an Indian elephant, which would have a colourful rug on its back for people to sit on when using tamed elephants as transport.

I had three different colours on the go: turquoise, baby pink, and baby yellow (if baby yellow is indeed a thing). I used white only for outlining the rugs on the elephants' backs, their toenails, their eyelashes, and for attaching their eyes. I choses brown, blue, and green M&Ms deliberately, being three common human eye colours... not so sure about elephant eye colours.

I laid the icing bags on the table in a line: blue, pink, yellow. I picked up the first bag, filled the rug, then the second for the detailing. On the second elephant, I picked up the second bag, filled the rug, then used the third for the detailing. The next elephant, I used the third bag to fill the rug, then detailed with the first. I continued in this rotation until I ran out of elephants, meaning there was all 6 possible colour combinations.

I could have used the white for detailing too, but I wanted them to be as colourful as possible with three colours; I also thought about using some dragées for extra flair on the rugs, but they were too small for that kind of detailing. Overall, I think they were very pretty! They remind me of little pachyderm party rings.

I had some extra dough left over from cutting out the elephants, which I did using a card cutout I had drawn in freehand of a simple elephant shape. I used a sharp knife to cut around the cutout into the dough, like I did with my Dinosaur Kimberleys (which contains a recipe for soft cakey gingerbread biscuits made with egg). I cut out some stars from the excess dough and decorated them randomly with icing and M&Ms. Those were pretty tasty: the combination of gingerbread, royal icing, and candy coated chocolate in one mouthful was actually very nice and balanced, if not INCREDIBLY sweet.

I really enjoyed making these, and they were a big hit! Everything was eaten, including the brownies (which will be my next blog), a bowl of Bombay mix, and the nibbles that the guests brought too. All in all, a success.

Gingerbread Stars (Egg and Wheat Free)

I went to visit some friends in Dublin the weekend before Christmas to give out some presents, and for each friend I made something quite small, more of a token than anything else. I thought I'd make one of my friends a small handful of decorated gingerbread stars, in the spirit of the season.

These stars use the same recipe as the gingerbread houses, which is a wheat- and egg free recipe for gingerbread, but I used royal icing to decorate them, which makes them not completely egg free. Because I don't really like having egg yolks left over from separating eggs for royal icing, I bought some instant royal icing, which does the job. It's not ideal, because it starts setting pretty much as soon as you make it, meaning that each biscuit you ice the icing gets firmer. But I digress.

I used red and white because I think it's a nice Christmassy combination of colours, and it also means I only had to divide it in two and colour one half, which makes it way less fussy. I piped them with a simple snowflake design, which uses the trick of feathering to add interest to the snowflake arms.

To make the snowflake design, pipe the outline of the star about an eighth of an inch (3 millimetres) from the edge of the biscuit, then fill in to make the base. While the base is still wet, pipe a line of the accent colour from the middle of the star up the centre of each arm; pipe two little lines going across each long line. Using a cocktail stick, drag through the middle of each long line from the tips of the arms to the centre. The result can be seen in the photographs.

Leave to set, exposed to the air, for at least 6 hours, overnight is best. You can use any colour combination you like, and these can be eaten any time of year really!

FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Eggs

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Dairy

There was no blog this time last year.

Gingerbread Houses (Egg and Wheat Free)

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I decided that this year I would make everyone's presents by hand, and make them edible, and that I did! This year is a completely handmade affair. Along with the usual mince pies and Christmas cake, there is:

 Gluten free fairy cakes, with vegan buttercream
 Chocolate coated fudge, in a variety of flavours
 Gingerbread houses and biscuits with icing
 Filled moulded chocolates
 Pecan nut shortbread biscuits
 Dairy free Irish cream liqueur

It has been very busy in the kitchen this December, and I'm very proud of myself! I have a lot of catch-up blogging to do, and you all have a lot of catch-up reading...

But without further ado, I present to you wheat- and egg free gingerbread houses! 

They certainly won't win any prizes for architectural integrity, but this recipe for gingerbread doesn't change spread in the oven, meaning the biscuits are the same shape going in as out, making for very easy construction.

I made little individual ones for my sister and her boyfriend, and decorated them with white chocolate, royal icing (which DOES contain egg, but you can use melted chocolate or glacé icing instead if you have an egg allergy), jelly beans, pecan nuts, and Smarties.

The biscuit itself is very tasty, but I have a lot to learn when it comes to constructing a house out of it.

I drew up my own templates, which was basically one 3 by 5 inch (7½ by 13 centimetre) rectangle, one 4 by 6 inch (10 by 15 centimetre) rectangle, and one 3 inch (7½ centimetre) square with a 2 inch (5 centimetre) triangular hat on. I cut two of each shape for the houses, but there are literally hundreds of templates available on Pinterest for you to have a perusal through!

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Eggs

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Dairy
  

INGREDIMENTS

For 2 houses (according to my measurements)

• 2 ounces brown sugar
• 1 ounce golden syrup or treacle
• 4 ounces butter or margarine for a dairy free version
• 8 ounces white spelt flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp ground coriander
• Pinch ground cloves
• Water, to bind

To decorate

• Royal icing, or glacé icing or melted chocolate if you have an egg allergy
• Melted chocolate
• Sweets
• Nuts, or not if you have a nut allergy

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 180°c (350°F/Gas Mk. 4); line a baking sheet with non-stick baking paper, or grease lightly with butter or margarine.
• In a mixing bowl, beat the butter or margarine until soft and creamy with a wooden spoon. Mix in the syrup (or treacle) and the sugar and beat again until smooth.
• Sieve in the flour and spices, then mix with the spoon again until fully mixed, but crumbly.
• Add the water a teaspoon at a time until a soft dough is formed. Work briefly with your hands until it is smooth.
• Dust the work surface with flour, dust the rolling pin also, then roll to a thickness of a quarter inch (5 millimetres). Using the template and a sharp knife, cut out two of each piece. If you like, you can cut out a door from one gable piece, and windows from the side walls.
• Lie on a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until very pale golden around the edges. These biscuits won't brown much, and they will still be soft when removed from the oven.
• Allow to cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, before moving to a wire rack to cool completely before assembly.

There are countless videos on YouTube and countless blogs about how to construct a gingerbread house, and as my knowledge of gingerbread house construction is rudimentary at best, but this video is fairly good at showing how to construct a little one. I fused my houses together with royal icing, because it sets rock hard, but as I mentioned earlier melted chocolate works as well, but it will need support (from jars, tins, mugs, spice bottles etc.) for longer, as chocolate is runnier than royal icing.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Orange Chocolate Fudge (Naturally Gluten-Free)

Anniversary Gift: Chocolate Dipped Gingerbread Teddies (Wheat Free)

So, I finally settled on an idea for my parent's anniversary gift by combining my two ideas into one: making gingerbread and dipping it in chocolate. And here's the result!

I was going to make some elephants, but I realised that I had no elephant cutters, and my freezer drawers aren't big enough to roll the dough out into sheets and then freeze them, which is what needs to be done to free-hand cut biscuits when using a really soft dough. So, I just combined a flower cutter with a heart cutter to make two grown up teddies and then the same technique in he next size down to make the babies. I used this dough recipe, using treacle instead of golden syrup.

Mummy Bear and Daddy Bear

Little Anna and Nixie Bears

Little Andrew and Paddy Bears

Once they were cooked, the didn't look quite right: the lines where I had used multiple cutters were visible, and some of the biscuits had puffed up oddly. I'm still getting used to my new oven and weird stuff like that is common at the moment. So, if there's one thing I've learnt in my nearly two decades of baking things, it's when things look odd either a) ice them, or b) cover them in chocolate. I went with option B, of course.

The brown dipping chocolate was 3.5 ounces (100 grammes) milk chocolate, 2 ounces (55 grammes) white chocolate, and 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) sunflower oil melted together gently in a heatproof bowl over simmering water. For the love of all that's good and gracious, don't overheat it otherwise it'll go blotchy when it cools. It made them really pretty and smooth, and then I just decorated with a few touches of melted white chocolate, coloured with blue and pink.

I applied the white, blue and pink details not using a piping bag, but a medicine syringe. I went into my local pharmacy and asked for any auld plain medicine syringe for icing a cake, and they gave me a 2.5 millilitre syringe free of charge because they're nice like that. However, the syringe was very tricky to use because it only really had two responses to pressure: do nothing, or squeeze everything out at once... I made it work though.

To make the bows and noses, I squeezed a blob of chocolate and then using a cocktail stick dragged out the corners of the bows and drew the lips. I think they look a little bit more like mice than bears, but my parents copped that they were bears so I was more successful than I thought!

The box again this year was a challenge because the collection of teddies took up a lot of space. I bought two 42 pieces of coloured card, but it wasn't the heaviest card and had to be supplemented with an extra layer of card inside to make it more stable. Also, between me buying it and walking home it had become slightly crumpled.

All the fold marks are me doing an origami on it. I like to fold the boxes rather than glue them because I think it makes the corners sturdier.

So there we have it! Another successful anniversary gift to my parents. Happy anniversary, Mum and Dad!

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Traditional Coconut Ice

Gingerbread Men (Gluten-, Dairy-, Yeast-, Egg Free)

From now on, I'm going to include a legend in my blog for what each recipe is free from and contains. I think it'll make communicating how dietarily friendly each recipe is for each person's individual needs. Here's what it looks like. This recipe is:

FREE FROM
☑ Soya
☑ Dairy
☑ Egg
☑ Gluten
☑ Yeast

CONTAINS
☒ Nuts (almonds)
☒ Refined sugar products (golden syrup)

Having a friend with a very strict diet has recently brought out my experimental streak for another airing. I missed being this fearless with my cookery!

INGREDIMENTS

For about 20 or so biscuits, depending on size

• 1 ounce (30 grammes) ground almonds
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) cornflour
• 5 ounces (140 grammes) rice flour
• ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground coriander
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) vegetable margarine, at room temperature
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) brown sugar
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) golden syrup, or treacle
• 2 teaspoons of water
• Pinch of salt

For icing:

• 5 ounces (115 grammes) icing sugar, sifted
• Juice of half a lemon, roughly 1½ tablespoons (20 millilitres)

HOW TO

• Preheat your oven to 170°C (325°F, Gas Mk.3, or very moderate). Lightly oil your baking tray(s).
• Sieve the flours, xanthan gum, ground almonds, spices and salt together into a large bowl to mix together consistently; set aside.
• In another bowl, cream the margarine, sugar, and syrup or treacle until pale and fluffy with a wooden spoon, spatula or electric hand mixer. Add the water and beat again until smooth.
• Add in half of the dry ingredients and beat until fully mixed but still soft, then add in the remaining dry ingredients. You might need to use your hands to mix in the remaining dry ingredients.
• Sprinkle the work surface with flour and roll out the dough to your desired thickness. For me, about 1/4 inch (6 millimeters) works well for soft, cakey biscuits, and 1/8 inch (3 millimeters) makes nice crispy biscuits.
• Cut out the biscuits and put on the trays. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until set on the outside and ever so lightly browned around the edges.
• Remove from the oven and leave to cool for about 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
• Mix the icing sugar and lemon together to get a thick, pipeable icing and decorate as you wish.

And there they are! And they taste and feel pretty much exactly like normal gingerbread... who'd have thought it?