Real Gingerbread Men recipe
Inspired by an old Lebkuchen recipe, we ramped up the spices resulting in gingerbread men with a little bit of attitude. We opted for plain and simple icing for the photoshoot but feel free to go wild- just remember to send us your pics!
This recipe is taken from Honeybuns All Day Cook Book by Emma Goss-Custard.
MAKES About 25 small men using a 6cm x 4.5cm small man cutter
FREE FROM GLUTEN / DAIRY / NUTS
TIP If you prefer a biscuit with a little more ‘chew’ roll out to 1.5cm in thickness and keep the baking time and temperature the same
FLOUR SWAP Omit the milled seed blend, bicarbonate of soda and sorghum flour and replace with 350g gluten free self-raising flour.
Gingerbread
175g dark muscovado sugar
125g milled flaxseed, sunflower and pumpkin seed blend
225g sorghum flour, plus extra for dusting
2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1-2 grinds of black pepper
1 egg
150g runny honey
75g black treacle
80g crystallised or glacé ginger, chopped
Icing
1 egg white, or the equivalent amount of liquid pasteurised egg white
1 tsp lemon juice
½ tsp vanilla extract
185g icing sugar, sieved (we used golden unrefined)
Finishing
Approximately 20 pink peppercorns
Preheat the oven to 180°C / Gas 4.
Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.
Place all the dry gingerbread ingredients, except the chopped crystallised ginger, into a food processor and then add the egg, honey and treacle. Placing the ingredients in this order means you end with less of a sticky mess to clear up. Blitz until the mixture binds together. This will take less than 1 minute. The colour darkens slightly in the processor when it is ready. Then stir the ginger in with a spatula.
Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
Pop a sheet of baking parchment on a work surface and dust the baking parchment and your hands with sorghum flour. Split the dough into thirds so that rolling it out is easier to manage. Dust all 3 portions of dough liberally with sorghum flour. The trick is to ensure each portion of dough is thoroughly covered all over with sorghum flour prior to rolling out. Place the first portion of dough onto the baking parchment. Place another sheet of baking parchment on top of the dough and squidge it down a bit with your hands before rolling out with the rolling pin. You’ll need to roll the dough out to approximately 1cm thickness. To prevent the dough from sticking to the paper you need to keep dusting the dough with sorghum flour. Peel off and discard the top sheet of baking parchment before cutting out your shapes using your chosen cookie cutter. This bit can be tricky as the dough is sticky. Try dipping your cookie cutter in sorghum flour and you will need to peel each man carefully away from the cutter. Using a fish slice, transfer your men onto the lined baking sheet, spaced well apart. Repeat this process with the other 2 portions of dough.
Bake for 8-12 minutes until they are springy to the touch and darkened slightly on the edges. Leave to cool for 5 minutes before transferring with a fish slice to a cooling rack.
Allow the gingerbread men to cool completely.
To make the icing, whisk the egg white until you have stiff peaks. Add the lemon juice and vanilla extract. Slowly add the icing sugar, a bit at a time, and beat with an electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form again. Decant into an icing bag with a fine plain nozzle. This makes plenty of icing so don’t be surprised if you have a surplus. This can be kept in the fridge and warmed through in the microwave when you need it again.
Pipe your icing on as you like and finish off using pink peppercorns for buttons.
STORAGE Keep in an airtight container for 7 days. Can be frozen
This recipe is from Honeybuns All Day Cook Book by Emma Goss-Custard, published by Honeybee Books.
