It’s time to start baking gingerbread! These biscuits were made for Wiktoria’s school Christmas charity fundraiser, but they also turned out to be the perfect warm-up for the festive season. The children, of course, were eager to help :). Half the kitchen ended up covered in icing, lunch was rather forgotten, but the smiles on their faces were priceless… These gingerbread biscuits make beautiful Christmas tree decorations, but above all they’re delicious, both freshly baked and after they’ve softened. They also keep exceptionally well. Happy baking!
Makes 50–60 biscuits.
Ingredients for Christmas gingerbread biscuits:
- 90 g honey
- 80 g butter
- 80 g light soft brown sugar or icing sugar
- 1 large egg
- 340 g plain flour
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1½–2 tablespoons mixed spice
- optional: 1 teaspoon cocoa powder, for a darker colour
All the ingredients should be at room temperature.
Heat the honey, butter and sugar together in a saucepan, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Leave to cool slightly. Add the remaining ingredients and knead into a dough or mix until combined. If the dough is too crumbly, add a little more runny honey until it reaches the right consistency and mix again. If it’s too soft, chill it in the fridge before rolling.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of 2–3 mm (remember that thicker biscuits will be softer after baking). Cut out your favourite shapes and place them on baking trays lined with baking paper.
Bake at 170–180°C for 8–10 minutes. Take care not to overbake them, otherwise they’ll become too crisp and develop a slightly bitter taste. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
The biscuits will be quite hard immediately after baking, but they will soften over time (see below). They keep extremely well for several months, so they can easily be baked a few weeks before Christmas, leaving the decorating until later.
Variations
- Gingerbread Tree Decorations
If you’d like to hang the biscuits on the Christmas tree, make a small hole before baking, for example using a drinking straw.
- Stained Glass Gingerbread Biscuits
Before baking, cut a smaller shape from the centre of a larger biscuit. Fill the opening with crushed boiled sweets (slightly heaped) and bake on a baking mat, removing the biscuits only once they have cooled completely.
Decorate the biscuits with icing or melted chocolate after baking and once they have softened.
How to Soften the Gingerbread Biscuits:
Freshly baked gingerbread biscuits are usually quite hard because of the honey. To soften, they need to absorb moisture from the air or from fruit. Once they do, they’ll become beautifully soft and almost melt in your mouth. Before icing them, place the biscuits on a wire rack in a humid room. If it’s raining, leaving a window slightly open can help. If your home is quite dry, store the biscuits in an airtight tin together with a few pieces of peeled apple. Replace the apple every few days to prevent it from going mouldy. The biscuits will gradually absorb the moisture from the fruit and soften.
Enjoy!
Recipe source: Galeria Potraw, Gazeta.pl.
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