Friday 1 November 2013

Run Run, As Fast As You Can

I've been blogging for two Christmases now; this year will be the third. And each year I tell you about our family tradition of making masses of gingerbread cookies and decorating them. It was something that my mum did with my brothers and me when I was a child. As we grew into our teens we did not grow out of the tradition, rather we invited friends over to join in the decorating fun.

This year, I thought I would talk about it well before the actual fact occurs and give you the recipe - so if you decided it was a good idea you could start your own tradition in your house. The recipe will be posted up on the recipe tab at the top of my blog so it will be there whenever you would like.

This recipe is not for the faint hearted. It makes a lot, as in many, many cookies. But they are (a) tasty, (b) fun to put out when you are entertaining over the holidays, and (c) don't go stale and horrible, or soggy, as long as you store them well in a cookie tin. Just an idea of how much dough you get can be seen by how full my Kitchen Aid mixer gets when I am making it.


I tend to make the dough a couple of days in advance, and then form it into three discs, wrap in plastic wrap and keep in the fridge until we are ready for the cookie marathon. On the day we decorate I make royal icing as this is the icing that dries hard and is good for decorating and then stacking up in the cookie tin once they are dry. We empty the cupboards of every sprinkle and bit of edible glitter we have, put on the Christmas tunes and have a great time.


If you are feeling particularly ambitious then use some of the dough to make a gingerbread house. We have cookie cutters to help us achieve the desired shape, and like to smash up boiled sweets and put them in the window openings before baking to form 'stained glass' windows.

Though I must admit that making that gingerbread house stand up and stay standing up is a challenge that I struggle with. This year though I have a new card up my sleeve. I've purchased new cutters at Ikea. They slot the pieces of the house together so, theoretically, there won't be any houses falling down here abouts. Trust Ikea to come up with the flat packed gingerbread house.


I hope I haven't scared the pants off you talking about Christmas cookies so far in advance. I guess they were on my mind what with the recent new house cutters purchase. But if I have inspired you to join the fun, here's the recipe -

Gingerbread Dough

5 cups of plain flour
2 heaped tsp ground cinnamon
2 heaped tsp of ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (8 oz) shortening/margarine/butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup light molasses/treacle
1 egg

Combine dry ingredients. Beat shortening/butter and sugar. Add molasses/treacle and beat in. Add in egg and beat until incorporated. Add dry ingredients a cup at a time until all incorporated and a stiff dough is formed. Form into three discs, wrap well in plastic wrap and refridgerate for at least an hour to rest.

Preheat oven to 350F/180C/160 Fan/Gas Mark 4.

Roll out the dough on a floured work surface to approximately 1/8" thick. (The dough is hard to work with at first when chilled but it will become much more pliable soon enough. Have faith.) Cut out desired shapes and place on a lined cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 10 minutes, until golden brown. Decorate as desired once cooled. Enjoy!

If you try this recipe, I hope you enjoy it.

Susan

27 comments:

  1. Thanks for the receipie, I always wanted to make gingerbread with my Girl, maybe this year :)

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  2. Can I just come over and eat yours, they look delicious, but i need to check first! ;o)

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  3. OK, this is weird. I am about to go all ninja bake master to make cakes & ginger cookies for 2 events in 2 days. I am doing a bit of blog reading to ready myself. OK it's procrastinating :)
    Your recipe is very similar to the one I have (mine uses all spice not cloves)
    However I can't for the life of me find my royal icing recipe. It's just powdered sugar & milk yes??
    Lush x

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  4. I make a lot of Christmas cookies too, including gingerbread. I think your recipe is much like mine and makes a lot. I am going to try to start early this year too, it is a good idea.

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  5. I saw "5 cups of flour" and thought, oh - no problem, I'll just scale it down. Then I got to the part about "1 egg". Blimey. That does make a lot of dough!

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  6. not gonna be allowed to eat that :-( bummer.

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  7. You do nothing half arsed, do you? Love that you splurged on the IKEA house cutters. That's so cool.

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  8. Thanks for the recipe. Blah! I don't want to think about Christmas yet.

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  9. Perfect timing!

    To solve the child who doesn't like sweets or chocolate problem, I've decided to make a Gingerbread advent calendar this year. I want a recipe to include cloves, just because it makes the gingerbread truly Christmassy.

    Ta Da, Susan the fairy godmother comes up trumps again, saving me having to trawl the internet.
    Thank you x

    ps. if it ends up I can't be arsed/bothered/run out of time with secret baking and decorating, I'll end up spending a fortune on the Lego City advent calendar again! :-\

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  10. Yum! Reminds me of the goodies my cousin and her roommate used to send us every year when I was a kid. They would bake bits of baking twine into the backs of the cookies so we could put them on our tree.....it never happened that way....they got eaten way before tree trimming day.

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  11. Great idea to post about it now.We make gingerbread houses-its a great 'together' time

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  12. You've made more than enough, so send me some, please.

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  13. So, if I wanted to make hanging decorations, at which point would I make the holes? Straight out of the oven?

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  14. My Chook hates ginger so me an the spouse would have to eat them all ourselves. Ooh, a plan! *g* Love the Ikea comment - so true!

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  15. I attempted a gingerbread house (actually twice ) and it looked like it had been hit by scud missiles. I'll leave that idea alone ...but even I can make cookies surely? Thanks for the recipe!

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  16. We always decorated cookies around Sinterklaas (5th Dec, historically related to Santa of course; must be his cousin...), but my Mum never baked them. You used to be able to buy huge person-shaped cookies, which were great to decorate... Must give your recipe a go now, this brings good memories, mmmmm....

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  17. Gingerbread is a tradition at my home too. As a child there was SO MUCH gingerbread, but the most important bit was always the day spent building the house. Also traditional was the smashing of the house as soon as Christmas came.

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  18. Ruby and I have made a gingerbread house every December 23rd since she was about 7. I love the tradition of it. You can tell the mood in the house by what goes on it or how well it stays up and amazingly how long it lasts!

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  19. We do this every year as well. We try to invite anyone willing to help. Usually my sister and niece. It takes at least one full day. Maybe we'll try your recipe this year...we use a different one each year. The house looks awesome! Too ambitious for me, we do a pure made house! Lol!

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  20. We made gingerbread houses last year and they went really well, so well that this years are likely to be a failure. And the girls want a castle not just a house!

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  21. Thanks for the recipe! I have tried to make these before (with other recipes!) and they have not worked, so I am going to make another attempt!

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  22. I've always marvelled at those beautiful gingerbread houses that get featured in magazines like better homes and gardens. Once, as a teenager, I attempted what I thought was a fairly modest version, but it was a spectacular failure... Stupid walls wouldn't stay up no matter what I tried!

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  23. I've always wanted to make one of those gingerbread houses!

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  24. Oh I used to make gingerbread biscuits all year round with my eldest as she liked to join in! Never made a house though!

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  25. If I get some peace this year, I might try some .. what's the royal icing you refer to?

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