Gingerbread Men Recipe

BLOGMAS- Day 20

Hello!
For Day 20 I am back with another baking post! Today I am going to share my favourite recipe for gingerbread men. These are perfect to make at Christmas time and they also make a lovely gift for your friends and family. I love the sweet but earthy flavour of the gingerbread men and you can have lots of fun decorating them. My earliest memory to do with baking is helping my mum ice gingerbread men. I loved making them as a child so it might be a fun thing to do with any children in your family this Christmas. This recipe was originally a Mary Berry recipe but I have changed a few parts and put in my own tips.

Gingerbread Men
These gingerbread men are a lovely treat and they are really good fun to ice. This recipe makes around 20 gingerbread men.

I love the bow ties on these gingerbread men

Ingredients

For the gingerbread dough:

• 350g plain flour
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 100g softened butter
• 175g light muscovado sugar
• 4 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 egg

To decorate:

• 1 tube smarties
• 1 tube white icing
• 1 set writing icing tubes

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius
2. Prepare 3 baking trays by lining them with baking paper
3. Measure all of the gingerbread dough ingredients into a large bowl and mix thoroughly until a dough has formed. I find it easier to do this with a kitchen aid
4. Divide the dough into two. This makes it easier to work with. Roll out half of the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is about the thickness of a pound coin
5. Cut out as many gingerbread men or other shapes as you can. Then roll all the scraps of dough into a ball and roll out again
6. Repeat with the other half of the dough and place all your gingerbread men onto the prepared baking trays
7. Bake the gingerbread men in the oven for 10-12 minutes until they are a slightly darker shade of brown. The gingerbread men will still be soft but they harden once you take them out of the oven
8. Leave them to cool on wire racks
9. Ice the gingerbread men with the writing icing and smarties. It is up to you how you do this but I usually do green eyes, a yellow nose and a red mouth. I use white icing to stick on smarties for buttons

I hope you will give this recipe a go. I always love making these at Christmas time!