Christmas baking with Mum L - gingerbread

Yesterday we decided to do a little more Christmas baking as we had some time in the morning so we made some gingerbread which we had taken the ingredients for. I love making gingerbread and feel it has to be Christmas to make it so from 1 December is my limit- otherwise I’d eat far too much of it and it wouldn’t be so special any more.

We made the dough just after breakfast and then went off to see a Christmas market while it spent some time chilling in the fridge. I’ll write a separate blog about the Christmas fair later.

Here’s the dough as it came out of the fridge (I forgot to take any pictures making it but you pretty much throw everything in the blender (or whizzer as I like to call it) and mix until it looks smooth and comes together, kneed it a little then wrap it in cling film and pop it in the fridge.

When it comes out it needs a bit more kneeding then just rolling out. I find it works better to do it in two batches so that one half can stay cool while rolling the other. It’s also easier to roll a smaller piece each time.

We cut the gingerbread into snowflake shapes of different sizes but have learnt over the years to make sure similar size pieces all get baked together as it can be quite tricky to get the timings right for baking otherwise.

We baked them on one of these non-stick baking sheets on a baking tray but with no greasing or anything - they worked really well. I think we would like to get a couple of them for the next time we make them as they worked really well.

Here they are fresh out of the oven. We like to take them out just before they look like they are done as they carry on cooking after they’re out for a little bit. We like to make our gingerbread relatively soft so you have to do this otherwise they turn into biscuits.

When they’re all done these all stack up (as long as you’ve made the right number of each shape) to make a Christmas tree. I must admit I did get a bit confused at one point how many of each size I’d done but we managed to make almost enough for 2 trees (I think we were about 2 biscuits short).

If you like icing (which I don’t) you can always ice these together to make them more solid and stand up the final star on the top of the tree. I love making these each year as they are so effective but so easy to make.