Christmas Goodies

Phew, so I got carried away this Christmas and got into a baking frenzy, some new things, some old favourites. I'll be blogging the new ones so stay tuned!

Anyway here is just a sample of the

-Gingerbread biscuits

-2 Gingerbread Christmas Trees

-6 Tiny fruit cakes

-2 Tiny chocolate Madeira cakes

-Chocolate covered ginger shortbread

-Chocolate buns

-2 batches of mince pies

-Gruyere cheese biscuits

I used my standard gingerbread recipe to make two gingerbread christmas trees. This used different sizes of star cutter and stacked. I iced them individually then used a small blob of icing to stick them together. It'll probably be quite messy to eat but looks nice. The silver dragees finish it off though they are tricky to stick on. I used the end of a knife to put icing on each star tip, it would be a much cleaner finish to pipe it.

There's a lot of variety with this idea, I've seen green ones with coloured sprinkles etc, or you could use licorice laces as tinsel and decorate it, all it needs is a bit of imagination.

Teapot Cookies

I got a teapot cookie cutter ages ago and had yet to try it out properly. I made some gingerbread (yes again, but it's yummy) to have with what else but a nice cuppa.

I debated over how to decorate them but decided on simplicity in the end. The hearts and stars are great sprinkles, I've used them loads! I think I'll go and put the kettle on...

Gingerbread house

I had wanted to do this last year, but couldn't find the time. Luckily I was off work this week, so decided to make my gingerbread house!


I found this site, gingerbread house heaven, really helpful as they provide templates and loads of advice. I based mine on the basic template, but then had to scale it down a bit, as my batch of gingerbread wasn't quite enough.





The inside of the walls was sugarpaste, to give it something to lean against, and the rest of it was put together with royal icing mix. The mix was really thick and I needed to use my hands to get it into all the gaps. I used some tins to support it overnight while it dried.


Then it was onto the fun bit: decorating!!!


I considered making it accurate, but it was more fun seeing how many sweets I could balance on it :) Chocolate buttons are great roof tiles, and I used some of the icing to make icicles. Unfortunately they just looked like the icing drips.



I bought the wee jelly figures last year, so we couldn't eat them, but I had to have Santa and a reindeer going down the chimney.



Once I made it, I had to wait a few days to enjoy it before I cut it. From being fairly sturdy assembled it came apart remarkably easily. I suspect that the thick icing was still a little wet! I used a sharp knife between the walls. I had been worried that it would have gone soggy, but the actual gingerbread was still nice. That extra spoonful of ginger really made a difference!

Gingerbread

I made one of my favourite things today – gingerbread. Not only is it really yummy but cutting the shapes and decorating them is fun too.

This is a slightly odd biscuit/cookie since it is made differently in every country. Traditionally in northern Europe it’s a softer biscuit, and further south it’s a more like a ginger snap. In the 1600’s Nuremberg’s (in Germany) Lebkuchen was so good it was used as currency to pay the city’s taxes!
While gingerbread men (and women) are commonly made, a popular use around Christmas time is making gingerbread houses. Inspiring the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, there are some amazing creations. Here’s my favourite; I love that the decorations is almost all icing. The ‘snow’ on the roof is particularly good.

It’s from the The Gingerbread Book, Ed. Allen D. Bragdon, New York: Arco Publishing, 1984. I actually intended to make one myself for the first time last Christmas, but was too busy. I’m definitely doing this year though.

My recipe is another school book source. It makes biscuits that are quite soft, but can be made crispy by leaving them in the oven for another few minutes.

350g Plain flour
110g Margarine
175g Demerara sugar
4 tbsp Golden Syrup
1 Lightly beaten egg
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1 tsp Ginger
1 tsp Cinnamon

1) Preheat the oven to 190 C and grease two baking trays
2) Mix flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon
3) Rub in the margarine, or mix in a food processor until it has the consistency of breadcrumbs
4) Stir in the sugar
5) Beat the golden syrup into the egg. If you dip the spoon into hot water, it’ll come off the spoon really easily.
6) Add this to the dry mixture and knead into a dough. It’ll seem too dry but will come together.
Normal dough on the left, treacle on the right

7) Roll out and cut out shapes.

8) Bake for around 12-15 minutes.

There’s a lot of ways to vary this recipe to suit your tastes.
Here I made half with the normal golden syrup, and half with treacle to see what would happen. What came out was a stronger molasses flavour and less gingery. Personally I prefer the original version, but would definitely make these again.

The recipe above is the basic one, but I normally add another teaspoon of ginger as I like the strong taste.

Changing the type of sugar also alters the outcome. I used Demerara, which gives quite a coarse texture and lets the ginger come through. Using dark brown sugar will give a finer texture, but might overwhelm the ginger flavour. It really depends what you like.

Here's my crowd shot

I just did a few quick decorations with chocolate and sugarpaste, but the only limit is your imagination :) ‘Hair’ can be chocolate sprinkles, desiccated coconut, chocolate or raisins.

I made a few ‘old school’ ones.

And my brother's inspiration 'Ninjabread'