These always remind me of my childhood baking with my grandparents. They are so easy to make and even easier to enjoy one or three with a cuppa. These are even fun to make with the kids as they will love squishing the dough together, rolling it out and cutting the shapes out. And of course the decorating is also fun, you can either add raisins to the body before cooking or you can add icing and smarties or jelly tots or any fun sweets once baked and cooled.
You can make these in any shape or size you like, the ones in these photos were from when we took them to our Slimming World’s 50th birthday taster session hence their bellies saying 50 on them.
Some recommended items from our kitchen to make this dish…
- Double sided dry and liquid measuring spoons for times when you need to measure both liquid and dry ingredients.
- Mixing bowls are always wanted in this household and these stackable ones save so much space in our cupboards.
- Rolling pin, we use a stainless steel one as I make a lot of pastry and it can be put in the fridge to prevent pasty from getting so warm from warm hands and being handled so much. Best purchase I ever made for pastry.
- Baking trays, we have separate ones for cake items and others for things like veg and meat etc so we have more than one set floating around in our house.
- No gingerbread man is a man without these cute cutters, and different sizes mean you can make a cute little family.
- Silicone whisks in varying sizes, much prefer silicone to metal as it rusts.
- Cake cooling racks, so handy to have.
Don’t forget to take a pic of your dish and tag us over on Instagram or Facebook @hickmans_slim_kitchen we love to see the recreations.
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Thank you.
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INGREDIENTS:
- 4 tablespoons Sliver Spoon golden syrup
- 300g plain flour
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 3 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1½ teaspoons ground mixed spice
- 100g unsalted butter, at room temperature and cubed
- 150g soft dark brown sugar
- 1 egg
- PLUS 1 tablespoon plain flour for dusting the work surface
METHOD:
- Preheat the oven to 190°C.
- Heat the golden syrup in a heavy bottomed pan so it turns really runny, being careful not to bring it to the boil, it should only take a few seconds. Allow to cool slightly.
- Meanwhile sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices into a bowl and give a quick stir.
- Add in the butter and rub together with your fingers to resemble fine breadcrumbs.
- Add the sugar to the breadcrumb mixture and mix well.
- Beat the egg into the cooled syrup until well blended.
- Make a well in the centre of the breadcrumb mix and pour the syrup mixture in.
- Bring it all together to a rough dough, wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Dust the tablespoon of flour onto the work surface and over your rolling pin and roll the dough out to roughly 5mm thick.
- Using your chosen cutter make as many biscuits as you can and transfer to non stick baking trays, being sure to leave a little gap between them.
- Re roll any off cuts of dough and keep making more biscuits until you can get no more from your dough.
- If using raisins for buttons and facial features pop them in now otherwise leave them plain and place in the oven to bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden.
- Transfer to wire racks to cool completely being careful removing them as they will be slightly soft, they will crisp up when cold.
- Once fully cooled you can decorate them if you wish with icing sugar, sprinkles, sweeties etc. Have fun with them.
NOTES:
- These will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Hickmans Slim Kitchen 