Gingerbread Folk Recipes

Steps:

• Set the oven for 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Melt a little of the butter and grease baking sheets using a pastry brush.
• Put the butter, brown sugar, and honey in a saucepan and stir them over low heat until they have melted.
• Sift the flour, ginger, and baking soda into a mixing bowl. Add the melted mixture from the saucepan and egg.
• Mix everything together and knead it into a ball. Chill the dough in a plastic bag for 30 minutes.
• Sprinkle some flour on a flat, clean surface and on a rolling pin. Then roll the dough out until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Use cookie cutters or a knife to cut out shapes and people. Lift the cookies onto baking sheet, then gather all the leftover dough and cut out more shapes. Press currants into the dough to make eyes and buttons and bake for 10 to 15 minutes until they are golden brown.
• To Make Icing: Sift the confectioners' sugar into a bowl. Add a little water at a time to make a thick, smooth paste. Spoon a bit of the icing into a small bowl and add a few drops of food coloring. Do the same with the rest, using a different color. Fill pastry bags with the icing and squeeze it onto the cookies to make clothes!

Steps:

• Heat the butter, syrup and sugar together in a small pan until melted, stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool slightly.
• Mix together the bicarb, ginger, cinnamon and flour in a large bowl. Pour in the buttery syrup mixture and stir to combine, then use your hands to bring together to form a dough. The dough will be soft at this point, but it'll firm up in the fridge.
• Put the dough on a sheet of baking parchment, shape into a rectangle, and lay another sheet of parchment on top of it. Roll the dough out to a thickness of ½cm. Transfer to a baking sheet to keep it flat, leaving the parchment in place, then chill in the fridge for 1 hr.
• Heat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5 and line a large baking sheet with more baking parchment. Remove the dough from the fridge and cut out shapes using a cookie cutter. We used 9cm stars, but you can choose any shape. We also made some with smaller stars cut out of the centre to thread ribbon through and hang from a Christmas tree.
• Place the shapes, spread apart, on the lined baking sheet, and bake for 10-12 mins. (Depending on the size of the cutters you use, they might need a few minutes more or less cooking in the oven). Leave to cool completely on the baking sheet.
• Meanwhile, mix the icing sugar with 1-2 tbsp water - you want to create a consistency that's thick and pipeable, and not too thin or it will run. Decorate the cooled biscuits with the icing using a piping bag with a thin nozzle. Find out how to make a piping bag.

Steps:

• Beat the butter in a stand mixer or with electric beaters until it is soft and then beat in, one by one, the sugar, golden syrup and treacle. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Tip in the flour, baking powder and ginger along with a pinch of salt and beat in the flour on a slow speed until it is just combined. The dough will be very soft at this point. Scrape the dough into a container and chill it in the fridge for about 8 hours or overnight. You don't have to leave it for this long but it does improve the flavour.
• To roll out the dough you'll need a non-stick work surface that is lightly dusted with flour. Scoop out a small batch of the dough (it will still be very soft) and roll it out carefully to about 2mm thick. Cut out gingerbread people or circles and transfer them to a lined baking sheet. When you have filled the sheet (leaving enough room for spreading) put it into the fridge for 30 mins along with the remaining dough (you can freeze the dough in batches, if you like).
• Heat the oven to 170C/150C fan/gas 3. Cook the gingerbread for the 10-12 minutes depending on level of crispness don't try and remove them from the sheet until the gingerbread shapes have cooled enough. Cool completely and then decorate if you want. You can freeze the cooked gingerbread if you like, or keep for up to 3 days in an airtight container