GINGERBREAD MAN

Gingerbread man image

Even the smallest hands can help make these gingerbread men - perfect for Christmas. You can use raisins, sultanas or Smarties to decorate

Provided by Good Food team

Time 1h

Yield Makes 12 big gingerbread men

Number Of Ingredients 12

Ingredients

140g unsalted butter
100g dark muscovado sugar
3 tbsp golden syrup
350g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
2 balls stem ginger from a jar, chopped
50g icing sugar
a few glacé cherries (we used undyed)
2 balls stem ginger

Steps:

Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment. Melt butter, sugar and syrup in a pan. Mix flour, soda, spices and a pinch of salt in a bowl. Stir in the butter mix and chopped ginger to make a stiff-ish dough.
Wait until cool enough to handle, then roll out dough to about 5mm thick. Stamp out gingerbread men, re-rolling and pressing the trimmings back together and rolling again. Lift onto baking sheets. Bake for 12 mins until golden. Cool 10 mins on the sheets, then lift onto cooling racks.
To decorate, mix icing sugar with a few drops of water until thick and smooth. Halve then slice cherries thinly to make smiles, and cut ginger into small squares. Spoon icing into a food bag, snip off the tiniest bit from one corner, then squeeze eyes and buttons, and a tiny smile onto 1 man at a time. Stick on a cherry smile and ginger buttons. Repeat; leave to set. Will keep up to 1 week in an airtight tin.

Nutrition Facts : Calories 264 calories, Fat 10 grams fat, SaturatedFat 6 grams saturated fat, Carbohydrate 43 grams carbohydrates, Sugar 20 grams sugar, Fiber 1 grams fiber, Protein 3 grams protein, Sodium 0.33 milligram of sodium