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/

"Hot Toddy" Irish Coffee (Contains Alcohol)

January has come.... so dark... so wet... so dreary. According to many, the first Monday in January is the saddest day of the year. You might need a bit of a pick-me-up to help you out, and here is one full of Christmassy cheer: a "Hot Toddy" Irish Coffee!

I don't know why nobody else has thought of combining two quintessentially Christmassy whiskey cocktails, and even when I put the two things together in my head I didn't really know what it would look like. But with some brainstorming, I eventually designed an Irish coffee that's infused with the common hot toddy flavours: cinnamon, cloves, and lemon. You might be thinking "lemon? With coffee?!" but don't knock it as the Portuguese have been combining coffee with lemon for a while in their summer tipple, Mazagran.

Infusing coffee with spices or herbs is actually pretty simple if you have a French press or pour-over filter, simply pop the spices in with the coffee and as it steeps the spices will give their flavour to the finished brew. It's also fairly simple if you have a coffee capsule machine (like I do: I got myself one with some of our wedding gift money) if you pop the spices into the bottom of a warmed glass and allow the coffee to dispense onto them, then cover with a coaster and allow to brew for about 5 minutes.

Despite the fact that the Irish coffee was invented in my home county of Clare (or Limerick, depending on your sources) I had never had one until my brother made me one this Christmas. He makes his Irish coffees with a strong bias to whiskey, however this drink was originally meant to have only an ounce measure of whiskey as a night-cap.

INGREDIMENTS

For 2 servings

6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres) strong black coffee

4 whole cloves

2 inches (5 centimetres) piece of cinnamon stick, broken into small pieces

Half a teaspoon of lemon zest

Two shots (60 millilitres) Irish whiskey: Irish brands include Jameson, Bushmills, Powers, and Tullamore Dew

4 teaspoons (20 grammes) Demerara sugar

Whipped cream, to serve. I use whipped cream from a squirty can because it's convenient

Grated nutmeg, for decoration

Optional: 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) fresh lemon juice

METHOD

• Infuse the coffee with the spices and lemon zest, either by popping the aromatics with ground coffee into a French press, or putting them into the bottom of a warmed glass, pouring over the coffee, then covering with a coaster to brew for about 5 minutes.
• Use two small stemmed glasses, measuring about 6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres) each, and warm with hot water before using. 
• Divide the sugar between the glasses, and gently pour half of the whiskey into each glass without stirring.
• Gently add the coffee (making sure you've strained the spices out) by gently pouring it over the back of a teaspoon into the glasses. Irish coffee is best if the layers don't mix much.
• Top off with whipped cream and grated nutmeg.

American Style: Snickerdoodles (Cup Measurements)

Happy New Year! My first offering of 2020 is a delicious cinnamony treat: the Snickerdoodle!

 

I meant to make these in the lead up to Christmas, as these are traditionally a holiday biscuit. But sadly for me I spent from December 19th to 31st in and out of bed with a horrible viral illness. So, a lot of my plans went right out of the window with my ability to breathe properly or eat. So, I made these during the week instead as my first baking venture of 2020.

As you know, last September I discovered the strange and enigmatic wonders of working with American cup measurements when I made whoopie pies. When I made those I thought to myself: could I design my own recipe with cups instead of ounces or grammes? That led me to this delicious creation, which was the result of much foostering and tweaking.

One thing I will impress upon you, however, is that you measure the ingredients correctly: there is, indeed, a way to properly use cups when measuring flour, caster sugar, and brown sugar.

I use Jill Selkowitz's guide to measuring flour on her website This Old Gal, where she stresses that flour must be nice and airy before measuring to get consistent results. Also, brown sugar must be compacted into the cup measurements nice and tightly to get the right results. Brown sugar is a little softer than white sugar, so the cupfuls are slightly lighter.

So, without further ado, here is the first recipe that I have ever designed to be made using American cup measurements!

INGREDIMENTS

2 cups (240 grammes) plain flour: wheat, or spelt, spooned and leveled
½ cup (105 grammes) soft light brown sugar, packed
½ cup (115 grammes) caster sugar
½ cup (115 grammes) butter
1 medium (US large) egg
½ level teaspoon (2.5 millilitres) baking soda
1 level teaspoon (5 millilitres) ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon (1 millilitre) fine salt
Optional: 1 level teaspoon (5 millilitres) ground ginger
Cinnamon sugar, to coat


METHOD

• Line one or two baking trays with non-stick baking paper, and preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4). Make sure the oven racks are in the centre of the oven.
• In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugars. Beat in the egg to get a fluffy mixture.
• Sieve in the dry ingredients and work by hand into a soft dough that is a little bit tacky.
• Divide the mixture into 12 balls, rolling each ball in cinnamon sugar to coat. Arrange the dough balls on the sheets about 2 inches (5 centimetres) apart to allow for spreading. I only have small trays so I can only fit 6 to 8 cookies on mine.
• Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, depending on how crispy or chewy you want them: shorter cooking makes chewier cookies, longer cooking makes them crispier.