You can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man!

A couple of weeks ago Tom and I made gingerbread men to take to school for morning tea.  They had been reading a gingerbread man story in class and drawing pictures so we thought it would be fun to take some in.  Tom's class loved them and they went down a real treat.

We didn't ice these - but you can add any kind of edible decoration you want to them.

On the weekend we had my nieces come to stay and on Sunday afternoon we made the recipe again, this time adding butterfly and heart cutters too.

The recipe makes a huge amount of biscuits (around 40) so halving the recipe is good if you are wanting a smaller batch for the pantry tins.

These have a subtle ginger taste so the kids love them.  I add a little milk as the recipe makes quite a dry mixture, although using a blender (I mix by hand) would help bind the ingredients a lot better.  Also giving the dough a good knead after it's been  in the fridge helps too.

Gingerbread Men (and ladies)

You will need:

2 cups plain flour
½ tsp baking soda
1 tbsp. ground ginger
1 cup (220g) firmly packed soft brown sugar or dark cane sugar
150g butter
1 egg, beaten

Method: 

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

Sift flour, baking soda and ginger together and place in a bowl or food processor. Add soft brown sugar or dark cane sugar.

Add butter and rub in with fingertips or pulse in food processor until resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Add egg and stir or pulse to mix. (At this stage I add a little milk if the mix is too dry).  Refrigerate for half an hour.

Roll out on lightly floured surface or between 2 sheets of baking paper until 5mm thick, using cookie cutters, cut shapes and place on tray. Form leftover dough into a ball and re-roll and repeat cutting out until all the dough is used up.

Bake gingerbread men for 8-10 minutes or until cooked and golden. Remove from oven and cool on baking rack.

Enjoy!