Homemade Festive Gifts: Gingerbread Biscuits

Ingredients

• 350g/12oz plain flour, plus extra for rolling out
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 125g/4½oz butter
• 175g/6oz light soft brown sugar
• 1 free-range egg
• 4 tbsp golden syrup (we used Maple as we had no golden left)

Preparation method

1. Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon and pour into the bowl of a food processor. Add the butter and blend until the mix looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.

2. Lightly beat the egg and golden syrup together, add to the food processor and pulse until the mixture clumps together. Tip the dough out, knead briefly until smooth, wrap in clingfim and leave to chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.

3. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.

4. Roll the dough out to a 0.5cm/¼in thickness on a lightly floured surface. Using cutters, cut out the gingerbread men shapes and place on the baking tray, leaving a gap between them.

5. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly golden-brown. Leave on the tray for 10 minutes and then move to a wire rack to finish cooling. When cooled decorate with the writing icing and cake decorations.

To decorate 

• Icing sugar
• Water
• Cake Decorations, of your choice

We chose white icing for the Christmas Wreaths with Dr.Oetker Soft Shimmer Pearls dotted around the edge. Green icing for the Christmas Tree shapes adding the pearls also as decorations and a mixture of red/pink and white icing for the stars again with shimmer pearls. Icing is very simple to make, simply mix icing sugar with a small amount of water, mix until you reach your desired consistency.

To package

• Cellophane, pick a colour of your choice
• Christmas ribbon
• Gift labels
• Stapler

We decided to give our gingerbread biscuits away as gifts for the family on Christmas Day. After separating the biscuits into groups for each present we wrapped them in cellophane using a stapler and ribbon to secure the sides and tie the top together. We then attached a gift label with a Christmas message to the ribbon. We decided to turn the Christmas Wreath biscuits into decorations by threading a ribbon through the middle of them and stapling at the top leaving a bit enough loop to hang them.

I hope you all had a super Christmas!