Gingerbread men

Serves:

Ingredients

• 125g butter, softened
• ½ cup brown sugar, packed
• ½ cup golden syrup
• 1 egg, separated + I egg white, extra
• 2 ½ cups plain flour
• 1 tbsp powdered ginger
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 150g packet smarties or chocolate buttons to decorate

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Cream butter and brown sugar together using an electric beater, stand mixer or food processor.

Add egg yolk and golden syrup and mix until combined.

Add flour, ginger, mixed spice and bicarb soda and combine. It might look a bit crumbly, but don’t worry – it works!

Place onto a piece of baking paper and then cover with another piece of baking paper – using a rolling pin, roll out the dough and cut out with desired shapes (kids can help here) re-roll as needed, but keep using the baking paper.

Move the cut shapes over to greased baking trays with a spatula/egg flip and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Once baked, let cool for 10 minutes on the tray and then transfer to cooling rack.

To make the icing, beat the 2 egg whites until they are stiff peaks, add the sifted icing sugar and combine with a few drops of lemon juice. Place into a piping bag and decorate the gingerbread men with the icing and the smarties.

Notes:

• With any leftover dough, you can let the kids go for their life – we had a ‘cow’ ‘butterfly’ and an ‘Olivia’.
• I saw Georgie and Alex on Playschool making gingerbread men and felt inspired.
• This recipe was tested by Melissa Klemke for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder.

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Serving Suggestions

Note