I love making gingerbread cookies and usually use a melting method but recently I have been baking with very young children ( 2-4 year olds) and I needed to develop a recipe that would not need to be heated. Also by using a rubbed in method it is very tactile for little ones, it can be used straight away, as tiny folk don’t like to wait but the dough does improve if you give it 15 minutes to chill in the refrigerator.
Although this is a Christmas recipe it can be made at any time of year and goes well with a cup of tea or coffee. These are ideal cookies to batch bake as gifts for family friends and as fund raisers.

​You will need
2 or 3 baking sheets, baking parchment 
Cookie cutters

Oven temperature 
170C fan  assisted, gas 4 

Ingredients 

350g plain flour plus extra for rolling ( this can be replaced with gluten free plain flour or coconut flour) 
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon 
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
124g butter 
175g light soft brown sugar
1 free range egg
4 tablespoons golden syrup ( weight 100g)


To decorate 
200g icing sugar
40g egg white 
Or 
Sufficient water to make a water icing that is thick enough to pipe 
Edible gel colours of your choice 
Different edible sprinkles


Method

1. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, mixed spice, cinnamon and nutmeg into a bowl.
2. Cut the butter into small pieces and rub the butter into the flour until it disappears, stir in the brown sugar.
3. Place the syrup and egg in a bowl and beat until combined.
4. Stir the syrup mixture into the flour mixture and using a knife pull it together to make a dough.
5. Place the dough on to a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth.
6. Wrap in cling film and allow to rest for 15 minutes 
7. Lightly flour the work surface and roll the dough out to the thickness of a pound coin.
8. Flour cutters of your own choice and cut out shapes and place them onto a baking tray that is lined with parchment/greaseproof paper or silicon sheets.
9. Place in the oven and bake for 12 minutes, they are baked when they are slightly risen and golden in colour.
10. Leave on the tray for 1 minutes until they have cooled slightly and will be easier to transfer to a cooling rack.
11. The cookies can be left iced or iced. I prefer to use royal icing but if you don’t wish to use raw egg white use water icing that is slightly thick in consistency.
12. To make the icing 
13. Place the icing sugar in a bowl and add sufficient water /egg white to make a stiff spreading consistency or piping consistency 
14. Have fun by adding different colours to your icing or leave white 
15. A very easy method of icing is to spread icing over a cookie and then dip into sprinkles that have been placed in shallow wide bowls
16. Leave overnight or until the icing has set completely before storing in an airtight container . These biscuits will keep for at least a month but I doubt they will last that long. 
17. They can be bagged up in pretty cellophane packets and sold or given as gifts. 

Tip - leave spaces between the cookies as they will spread. Once baked and you find that some cookies are touching using a sharp knife and whilst the cookies are still hot out of the oven place the knife between the cookies that are sticking and cut a part. Use the knife in side to side movements to tidy the cut edges.

Festive gingerbread for gingerbread house 

When my children were little I made this delightful buttery gingerbread house and also made cookies. Whilst the children were at school I made the house. When they came home from school they helped me to decorate it, it  was very informal but they decorated it with love. They also made cookies with the leftover dough and personalized them for family members including their grandparents. 


What you will need
A template for a gingerbread house, for simplicity of assembly look for a template that is 2 rectangles and 2 triangles 
A variety of Christmas cookie cutters 
2-3 flat baking sheets
A cake board or a piece of wood to set the house on 


Ingredients 
1 medium egg
25g black treacle
200g caster sugar 
2teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground cardamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
250g butter
350g plain flour
5g baking powder


For the Royal Icing 
40g egg white 
200g sifted icing sugar
Disposable piping bag 


For making the house you will need the following 
1-2 boxes of Matchmakers to make the roof or what ever you might like 
A selection of brightly coloured sweets such as Skittles, Smarties, jelly beans or what ever you might like .
The important thing is to be creative.
A couple of tins to support the house as the icing sets
A little icing sugar to sift over the finished house.


Method 

1. Set the oven for 160C fan , 180-190C , 350-375F, gas 4-5
2. Line and greases 2 baking sheets
3. Place eggs, treacle, sugar, and spices in a bowl and beat well.
4. Melt the butter in a pan on the hob or in a microwave on medium for 2 minutes( or until melted).Let it cool then stir into the egg mixture.
5. Sift the flour and baking powder and stir to he mixture, binding with a wooden spoon or by hand to form a dough.
6. Wrap the dough in clingfilm or foil and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
7. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface until 7mm thick ( about the thickness of a pound coin).
8. Use the template to cut out the shapes and place them on the baking sheet leaving plenty of space between the pieces.
9. Bake for 15-20 minutes but every 5 minutes remove the tray from the oven and use a pallet knife to push the shapes back into their original shape, as they will spread and bow , alternatively when the shapes are baked , firm to the touch remove them from the oven and place the original template on top of the gingerbread and trim back to the shapes required. Leave to cool and firm up for 5 mins then place on cooling racks to become cold.
10. To assemble the house, make up the Royal icing. TIP: Place the icing sugar in a bowl with the egg white to make a stiff spreading consistency.
11. Fill the piping bag and use a bag clip on the end to prevent icing being pushed out of the top and snip about a cm from the end.
12. Have the cake board ready and when the pieces are glued place them on the board to set.Using the icing like cement take the two rectangles and run icing along the top edges of both pieces and push together to create a “tent” shape , prop up with the tins and leave to set. Don’t worry if it looks a little messy once set you can cover this “glue “ with the sweet decoration.
13. When the rectangles are set run icing along one triangle and place at one end of the house and repeat with the second triangle for the back of the house,leave to set completely.
14. When the house is set and firm then you can be creative in using icing to form door and windows and use the icing to stick the sweets etc onto the house. 
15. If you have any spare dough  make into Christmas cookies and decorate with any remaining icing.​