Blogmas Day 4 | Festive Baking #1

One of the things I love most about December is all the festive baking potential. There is so much inspiration on Pinterest and on Christmas adverts, and I'm constantly getting new ideas of what I want to have a go at baking next. Today, I made some gingerbread men and decided to do a step-by-step post :) If you have a go at making some yourself, let me know. Hope you all enjoy this post!

♥ What you'll need to make gingerbread men ♥

350g Plain Flour

175g Light Brown Soft Sugar (it actually looks like sand!)

100g Butter

1 Medium Egg (I used a large one, oops!)

4 tablespoons of Golden Syrup

1 teaspoon of Bicarbonate of Soda

1 & a half teaspoons of Ground Cinnamon

5 & a half teaspoons of Ground Ginger 

Kitchen scales

1 Large Mixing Bowl

1 Rolling Pin

1 Wooden Spoon

Little bowls for measuring ingredients out

Teaspoons & Tablespoons

1 or 2 Baking Trays    

Gingerbread Men Cookie Cutters  

 

 

    Remember to preheat your oven before you begin preparing your gingerbread men. Set it to 180C (Gas Mark 4). Start by adding the flour, butter, bicarbonate of soda, ginger & cinnamon into the large mixing bowl. Mix all the ingredients together using your hands, until the mixture is crumbley and all butter has been rubbed in. Here's a photo of what the mixture should look like before you begin the next step:

 

 Next, you need to add the sugar, egg and golden syrup & stir until it looks like a firm dough-like mixture. Then use your hands to roll the mixture into a ball. Sprinke flour on your work surface and onto the rolling pin to prevent the dough from sticking. For the final stage before cooking, roll the gingerbread dough out making sure it's 5mm thick and then use your cookie cutters to make shapes.

 

 Grease your baking trays with butter to stop the gingerbread men sticking and put into the oven for 15 minutes. Be sure to check after 10 minutes because in some ovens the gingerbread men may be golden and ready to be taken out after 12 minutes. When you've taken them out of the oven, leave them to cool for at least 15 minutes. Here is where I sourced my recipe. Before putting the gingerbread in the oven, I used a knife to make a little smile on their faces.

 

♥ What I used to decorate my gingerbread men ♥

1 packet of smarties (to use for buttons & eyes)

 1 bar of white chocolate (to use to stick the smarties to the gingerbread men. You could use icing, too).  

1 large glass bowl

1 pan

1 teaspoon  

 I made 3 different sizes of gingerbread men because I bought a 3 pack of cookie cutters from The Works for £2 (Find them here). First, break up the chocolate into pieces and add it into the glass bowl, then add boiling water into the pan. Next, place the glass bowl over the pan of boiling water to melt the chocolate. Once it had melted, I simply added a small blob of chocolate onto my gingerbread men using the teaspoon, and popped a smartie on top. For the smaller gingerbread men, we used chocolate for the eyes because their heads were too small for the smarties. My brother wanted to join in and help with this part :)

 I'm quite proud of my little gingerbread men. They look so cute!

 Thanks for reading!

♥

Do you have any festive baking planned? Are you taking part in Blogmas?

 I'll be baking more yummy festive treats soon.