Season Ginger

‘Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas’

<Peg Bracken>

          The most beautiful time of the year has already come and the madness of the season is already here. Shops are full of people, who have gone crazy for presents and food. Streets are full of the cars rushing home to finish the complimentary meals and decorate the trees, rap the presents and call the Santa. The BIG day is coming soon and it is just about time to bake your favorite season treats. And I cannot imagine Christmas Eve without the gingerbread! Besides, I found this recipe in the Good Food magazine and kicked it up a notch.  (This recipe makes around 3 trays of cookies and whole gingerbread house)

         

          Ingredients: 

1.       1kg plain flour- plus a little extra for dusting;

2.       300g cold butter;

3.       2tbsp mixed pie spices (usually can be found in the shops);

4.       2tbsp fresh mashed ginger;

5.       1tbsp bicarbonate soda;

6.       450 light brown sugar;

7.       3 large eggs;

8.       225g honey;

          

         Making:

1.       Pre-heat oven up to 200^oC.

2.       Put about half of the flour in a food processor with the butter. Whizz until you cannot see any lumps of butter remaining. Tip the buttery flour in the remaining flour, spices and soda with a pinch of salt. Add and stir the sugar.

3.       Add eggs and honey really carefully. Pay attention to the dough and the food processor because of the weight and consistence you might break it. Use straight away, or chill or freeze until ready to bake.

4.       Roll out quarter of the dough at a time on a sheet of baking parchment, to the thickness of 2x1pound coins.

5.       Bake the gingerbread one tray at a time (so it cooks evenly) on a high shelf in the oven for 8-12mins, until rich brown and firm to the touch. Give each tray 3-5mins to cool then carefully.

DECORATING

       This is my favorite part of the gingerbread. The most suitable icing for the ginger bread is Royal Icing, it as easy to make as it is easy to decorate with. Also you can glue candies or any other treats to your gingerbread with it. Royal Icing dries up evenly together with the thing stuck to it. However, don’t forget that if the gingerbread is going to be warm, your icing is going to drip down.

                Ingredients: 

1.       3 egg whites;

2.       4 cups of icing/confectioner sugar;

3.       1tsp of lemon juice;

4.       And a bit of water if needed;

     For making you do not need a lot, try doing it without the mixer or food processor because there is a huge possibility that it will break. So just mix everything together, the consistency of the mixture is going to be slightly flowing but drying on top pretty fast. You can add any food colouring to it.

     At the end of the day it is your biscuits and you decide where they go. If you want to put them on your Christmas tree just make a whole in the before baking. You can choose not to decorate them at all, because they are tasty just as they are.

The decorating:

    Get a couple of cooling racks ready. Always keep the unused icing covered in the bowl. You can use couple of techniques: 

·         Dip the biscuits into the icing one by one – covering about a quarter of the biscuit in icing, then sit on the cooling racks and leave to dry.

·         Spoon a little icing into a piping bag with a very small nozzle. Spoon half of the rest into a piping bag that has a slightly larger nozzle (or spoon into large food bags and, when ready to ice snip off the corner to turn into a piping bag). Use the small piping bag to pipe any icing decorations you want. Leave to dry.

·         Put the biscuits on to the drying rack take the spoon and drip the icing on them. You can add some sprinkles, candies, raisins etc..

Enjoy your time in the kitchen, your biscuits and your holiday! Have a very nice holidays!