Three little gingerbread men waiting to be eaten
Run run as fast as you can. You can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man. The story of the gingerbread man who didn't want to be eaten is a favourite of my son. He also loves this simple recipe with tasty results.
Time: 15 minutes preparation and 12 minutes baking
Age: Any Age
Level: Medium
Materials
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 tablespoons spoons golden syrup
Gingerbread man cutter or other cookie cutters
Greaseproof paper (baking parchment)
Take the butter out of the fridge and cut it into cubes so that it will have softened slightly before you need to use it later in the recipe.
Sift the flower, bicarbonate of soda and spices into a large bowl.
Rub in the butter with fingertips until it looks like breadcrumbs.
Beat the egg and golden syrup. You'll find that if you warm your tablespoon under some hot water, the syrup will slide off more easily.
Golden syrup
Add the egg and syrup to the flour, butter and sugar. It will seem a little dry to start but give it a good mix and you will see it start to form together.
Once it's holding together, take it out of the bowl and knead it on a floured surface.
It's only takes a few minutes of mixing until the dough starts to stick together. Little hands will love mixing and kneading
Roll the dough out until it's about 0.5cm thick and then you can use your cookie cutters to cut out gingerbread men or any other shapes you have.
Cutting out the gingerbread men
Place your gingerbread men on greaseproof paper on a baking tray and bake in a fan oven at 160c for 12 minutes until they are golden.
Just a few minutes in the oven and they will be ready to decorate and eat
Once the gingerbread men are cool, you can get decorate them with writing icing or get stuck straight into the eating.
Stars are a great idea for Christmas. You could package them up in a decorated jar with some fancy ribbon and give as a gift
Why not try some other shapes like stars for Christmas or these little feet would be great for a baby shower.
There are lots of different cookie cutter designs. Don't forget that smaller cookies will need less time to bake
