Gingerbread Men Cookies

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Christmas would not be Christmas in our house without Gingerbread Men. My youngest adores ginger cookies and it took me ages to find an easy fool- proof recipe. A lot of kids do not like ginger though so you can replace the ginger with a bit of extra cinnamon or a teaspoon of vanilla and still have fun decorating these cute men.

This recipe yields about 24 gingerbread men.

Ingredients

125ml(1/4c) butter or baking margarine/butter
250ml(1c) Castor sugar (tip, if you don’t have castor sugar on hand, whizz normal white sugar in the food processor for a few minutes)
1 egg
125ml(1/4c) golden syrup
45ml(3tbs) apricot jam
15ml(1tbs) ground ginger powder
pinch of ground cinnamon powder
7.5ml(1+1/2ts) bicarbonate of soda
30ml(2tbs) milk
750ml(3c) cake flour
pinch of salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 deg Celsius/ 350’F.

Use an electric mixer and cream butter and sugar until light yellow and creamy. Add egg and blend again.
Add syrup, apricot jam, ginger and cinnamon to butter mixture and blend again.
Dissolve bicarbonate of soda in milk, add to butter mixture and blend thoroughly.
Sift flour and salt together, add to butter mixture and mix to form a soft dough.
Roll dough out (on floured surface) to a thickness of about 3mm.
Use a gingerbread man cookie cutter to cut cookies.
Grease a baking tin or line with wax paper. Bake gingerbread men about 15 min until golden brown.
Decorate once cool.

Decorating

Anything edible goes. I normally make my icing with a teaspoon of butter to two cups icing sugar and add hot water until I have the desired consistency. Professional icing sets are not user friendly when it comes to little hands. I would suggest a piping bag or a bottle with a spout to “draw”with.

We found these amazing miniature condiment bottles at PEP Home, (the one in the photo is actually a vinegar bottle.) Works excellent for icing and little hands. My son was so impressed by it that we had to go buy extra to make more colours for next time!