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Gingerbread

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Gingerbread

This recipe for gingerbread can be used to make a whole range of decorations, gifts and, of course, gingerbread people. Get the children to help roll and cut out the dough, and to decorate the biscuits.

  • Vegetarian
Preparation time:
20 minutes
Cooking time:
10 minutes
Total time:
30 minutes 30 minutes
Makes:
 25 gingerbread people

Ingredients

  • 125g unsalted butter
  • 100g dark muscovado sugar
  • 4 tbsp golden syrup
  • 325g plain flour
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 2 tsp ground ginger
  • Supercook Writing Icing (optional)

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C, gas mark 3. Line baking trays with baking parchment. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a medium saucepan, stirring occasionally, then remove from the heat.
  2. Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into a bowl and stir the melted ingredients into the dry ingredients to make a stiff dough.
  3. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and roll to a thickness of about 5mm. Dip biscuit cutters into flour before cutting the dough, or cut around templates, which you can find at waitrose.com/christmas. Place the shapes onto the lined baking trays and bake, in batches, for 9-10 minutes until light golden brown.
  4. Remove from the oven. While still warm, and using a skewer or chopstick, make any holes that you will need to hang up the biscuits with ribbon or to make a yuletide garland. If you are decorating your Christmas cake with gingerbread people, make the holes in their arms so that ribbon can be threaded through at a later stage.
  5. When completely cool, decorate with the icing. The gingerbread biscuits can be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

Comments and images

Average user rating 4 stars out of 5

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larlbest

larlbest 19 January 2012 14:23

Such a fantastic recipe, and so simple I don't know how it could possibly go wrong. I made it with my son who is 17 months old and it was great fun, it doesn't take to long so he was interested until the very end. I used 'baking' as an alternative to butter and they turned out perfectly, very tasty and suitable for people with an allergy to dairy. Strongly recommend.

CupcakeColes

CupcakeColes 23 November 2011 18:51

I just made these and followed the recipe exactly. They turned out really well but I did chill the dough for about 10 mins before rolling out as my butter etc was still hot. Also needed a lot of flour when rolling and cutting. Fab recipe that I will be using again x

Parina_Patel

Parina_Patel 22 November 2011 22:57

Usually really pleased with Waitrose recipes but this was a nightmare from start to finish! The dough was too dry, despite accurately weighing out all ingredients. There was not enough to make 25 people, as the recipe suggests and the cooking time was longer than stated. Will be looking elsewhere for gingerbread people in future!

obsessive baker

obsessive baker 12 October 2011 11:06

I read the comments and then thought this would be an easy recipe to follow. I don't know what went wrong...I checked i used the correct ingredients but all i can say is that it looked like splodge...sticky sticky mess and hell to clear up. Because it was so splodgy I added loads more flour but still awful consistency. So disappointed...wish i'd thought to take a photo to upload...

Juleshowie

Juleshowie 13 February 2011 19:01

Five out of five from Isaac aged 6!

bomo

bomo 13 December 2010 17:54

easy recipe, I added an extra 1tsp of ginger and 1tsp of cinnamon. Rolled out to 3mm or 4mm as they rise in the oven quite a bit!

Ms_Rouski

Ms_Rouski 07 December 2010 14:46

I found the dough very crumbly and found it difficult to roll out also i added 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1 tsp of nutmeg and the suggested ginger!

mrsjoake

mrsjoake 17 November 2010 11:46

I didn't realise gingerbread is so easy to make! great recipe and really easy. After reading prevvious comments I also added a bit more ginger and some cinnamon. I also added a little more flour as my dough was a bit wet and that did the trick. Great for kids to make and decorate.

Missymop

Missymop 26 December 2009 22:44

Reading some of the comments I also added an extra teasppon of ginger which came out well- I found my first batch were good but more of a ginger bisuit than what I would call gingerbread the second time- more beacuse of what I had in my cupboard I used half plain flour and half self raising which I found gave a slightly softer middle to the gingerbread men. Overall I was really happy as this was my first attempt and I had some really positive comments.

emhillier

emhillier 12 November 2009 14:01

Foolproof recipe - I used it to make a gingerbread house for my daughter's birthday which I was very pleased with!

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4 stars out of 5

Average user rating Based on 1245 ratings

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Nutritional Info

Typical values per serving:
Energy 119.0kcal
Sugars 10.3g
Fat 4.4g
Saturated Fat 2.8g
Salt 0.2g

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This recipe was first published on Waitrose.com in November 2006