Gingerbread Men

A gingerbread man is a biscuit or cookie made of gingerbread, usually in the shape of a stylized human, commonly male as the name suggests, although making other shapes, especially seasonal themes and characters, is quite common as well.

Gingerbread dates back to the 15th century, and figural biscuit-making was practiced in the 16th century. The first documented instance of figure-shaped gingerbread biscuits appearing was in the court of Elizabeth I of England. She had the gingerbread figures made and presented in the likeness of some of her important guests.

Most gingerbread men share the same roughly humanoid shape, with stubby feet and no fingers. Many gingerbread men have a face, though whether the features are indentations within the face itself or other candies stuck on with icing or chocolate varies from recipe to recipe. Other decorations are common; hair, shirt cuffs, and shoes are sometimes applied, but by far the most popular decoration are shirt buttons, which are traditionally represented by gum drops, icing, or raisins.

Gingerbread Jungle

Snappy biscuits in animal shapes, which can be decorated in your own style.

Makes 14

Ingredients

175g/6oz/1 ½ cups self-raising flour
2.5ml / ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
2.5rnl/ ½ tsp ground cinnamon
10ml/2 tsp caster sugar
5Og/2oz/1/4 cup butter
45ml/3 tbsp golden syrup
50g/2oz/1/2 cup icing sugar
5-10ml/1-2 tsp water

Cook’s Tip Any cutters can be used with the same mixture. Obviously, the smaller the cutters, the more biscuits you will make.

1 Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/ Gas 5. Lightly oil two baking sheets.

2 Put the flour, bicarbonate of soda, 2 cinnamon and caster sugar in a bowl and mix together. Melt the butter and syrup in a saucepan. Pour over the dry ingredients.

3 Mix together well and then use your hands to pull the mixture together to make a dough.

4 Turn on to a lightly floured surface and roll out to about 5mm/1/4in thick.

5 Use floured animal cutters to cut shapes from the dough and arrange on the prepared baking sheets, leaving enough room between them to rise.

6 Press the trimmings back into a ball, roll it out and cut more shapes. Continue until all the dough
is used. Bake for 8-12 minutes, until lightly browned.

7 Leave to cool slightly, before transferring to a wire rack with a palette knife. Sift the icing sugar into
a small bowl and add enough water to make a fairly soft icing.

8 Spoon the icing into a piping bag fitted with a small, plain nozzle and pipe decorations on the cookies.

Jewelled Gingerbread Elephants

These stunningly robed elephants make a lovely gift for animal-lovers, or an edible decoration for a special occasion. If you make holes in them before baking, you could use them as original Christmas tree decorations.

Makes 10

INGREDIENTS
1 quantity Lebkuchen mixture (See recipe below)
1 quantity Icing Glaze
red food colouring
225g/8oz ready-to-roll sugar paste
small candy-covered chocolates or chews
gold dragees

1 Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/ Gas 4. Grease two large baking sheets. Make a paper template for the elephant. Roll out the Lebkuchen mixture. Use the template and a sharp knife to cut out elephant shapes. Space them, slightly apart, on the baking sheet for 3 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

2 Put a little Icing Glaze in a paper piping bag fitted with a fine nozzle. Alternatively, cut off the tip of
the bag.

3 Knead some red food colouring into half of the sugar paste. Roll a little red sugar paste under your fingers into ropes. Secure them around the feet and tips of the trunk, using icing from the bag. Shape more red sugar paste into flat oval shapes, about 2cm/ ¾ in long, and stick them to the elephants` heads. Shape smaller ovals and secure them at the top of the trunks.

4 Roll out the white sugar paste. Cut out circles, using a 6cm/2 ½ in biscuit cutter. Secure to the elephants’ backs with royal icing so that the edge of the sugar paste is about 2.5cm/1in above the top of the legs. Trim off the excess paste around the top of the white sugar paste shapes.

5 Pipe 1cm/1/2in tassels around the edges. Pipe dots of white icing at the tops of the trunks, around the necks and at the tops of the tails and also use it to draw small eyes. Halve the small sweets and press the halves into the sugar paste, above the tassels. Decorate the headdress, sweets and white sugar paste with gold dragees, securing them with dots of icing. Leave for several hours, to harden.

Gingerbread Teddies

These endearing gingerbread teddies, dressed in striped pyjamas, would make a perfect gift for friends of any age. lf you can’t get a large cutter, make smaller teddies or use a traditional gingerbread-man cutter. You might need some help from an adult for the decorating.

Makes 6

INGREDIENTS

75g/3oz white chocolate, chopped
175g/602 ready-to-roll white sugar paste
blue food colouring
25g/1 oz plain or milk chocolate

For the gingerbread
175g/6oz/1 ½ cups plain flour
1.5ml/1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
5ml/1 tsp ground ginger
5ml/1 tsp ground cinnamon
65g/2 ½ oz/1/3 cup unsalted butter, chopped
75g/3oz/1/3 cup caster sugar
30ml/2 tbsp maple or golden syrup
1 egg yolk, beaten

1 To make the gingerbread, sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spices into a large bowl. Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

2 Stir in the sugar, syrup and egg yolk and mix to a firm dough. Knead lightly. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

3Preheat the oven to l80°C/350°F/ Gas 4. Grease two large baking sheets. Roll out the gingerbread
dough on a floured surface and cut out teddies, using a floured 13cm/ 5in cookie cutter.

4 Transfer to the prepared baking sheets and bake for 10-15 minutes, until just beginning to colour around the edges. Leave on the baking sheets for 3 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack.

5 Melt half of the white chocolate. Put in a paper piping bag and snip off the tip. Make a neat template for the teddies’ clothes: draw an outline of the cutter on to paper, finishing at the neck, halfway down the arms and around the legs.

6 Thinly roll the sugar paste on a surface dusted with icing sugar. Use the template to cut out the
clothes, and secure them to the biscuits with the melted chocolate.

7 Use the sugar paste trimmings to add ears, eyes and snouts. Dilute the blue colouring with a little water and use it to paint the striped pyjamas.

8 Melt the remaining white chocolate and the plain or milk chocolate in separate bowls over
saucepans of hot water. Put in separate paper piping bags and snip off the tips. Use the white chocolate to pipe a decorative outline around the pyjamas and use the plain or milk chocolate to pipe the faces.

Chocolate Fruit and Nut Cookies

These simple, chunky gingerbread biscuits make a delicious gift, especially when presented
in a decorative gift box. The combination of walnuts, almonds and cherries is very effective,
but you can use any other mixture of glacé fruits and nuts. Makes 20

INGREDIENTS
50g/2oz/4 tbsp caster sugar
75ml/3fl oz/1/3 cup water
225g/8oz plain chocolate, chopped
4Og/1 ½ oz/1/4 cup walnut halves
75g/3oz/1/3 cup glace cherries, chopped into small wedges
115g/402/1 cup whole blanched almonds

For the Lebkuchen

115g/4oz/’/2 cup unsalted butter
115g/4oz/2/3 cup light muscovado sugar
1 egg, beaten
115g/4oz/1/3 cup black treacle
400g/14oz/3 ½ cups self-raising flour
5ml/1 tsp ground ginger
2.5ml/ ½ tsp ground cloves
1.5ml/ ¼ tsp chilli powder

Cook’S Tip: Carefully stack the biscuits in a pretty box or tin, lined with tissue paper, or tie in cellophane bundles.

1 To make the Lebkuchen, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg
and black treacle. Sift the flour, ginger, cloves and chilli powder into the bowl. Using a wooden spoon, gradually mix the ingredients together to make a stiff paste. Turn on to a lightly floured work surface and knead lightly until smooth. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

2 Preheat the oven t0 180°C/350°F/ Gas 4. Grease tw0 baking sheets. Shape the dough into a roll, 20cm/8in long. Chill for 30 minutes. Cut into 20 slices and space them on the baking sheets. Bake for 10 minutes. Leave on the baking sheets for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

3 Put the sugar and water in a small, heavy-based saucepan. Heat gently until the sugar dissolves.
Bring to the boil and boil for 1 minute, until slightly syrupy. Leave for 3 minutes, to cool slightly, and
then stir in the chocolate until it has melted and made a smooth sauce.

4 Place the wire rack of biscuits over a large tray or board. Spoon a little of the chocolate mixture over the biscuits, spreading it to the edges with the back of the spoon.

5 Gently press a walnut half into the centre of each biscuit. Arrange pieces of glacé cherry and almonds alternately around the nuts. Leave to set in a cool place.

baking with Bill & Sheila
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Gingerbread – Baking up a Christmas tradition

New Castle couple finds joy in making gingerbread homes

NEW CASTLE, Colorado — Once the kids had grown and left home, Alice and Danny Adams were in need of a new Christmas season tradition.

So one day before the holidays about 11 years ago, Alice decided to try something she’d always wanted to try — building a gingerbread house.

She found a recipe for the gingerbread and went to a catalog to order the cookie cutters to make the sides, roof and other parts of the house.

“I’d never done anything like that before, so I just decided to give it a try,” said Alice, a third-generation Garfield County native who grew up on the Sample family ranch up Elk Creek.

Danny is also a Colorado native. He and Alice raised two children in New Castle, Daniel and Sarah, both now in their 30s. The Adamses also have a new grandchild, as Sarah recently had a baby.

After the kids were gone away from home, gingerbread houses became the new way to occupy their time during the lead-up to the holidays.

“We make a new one every year for the home,” Alice said. “It never turns out the same. We put little window panes in them, and sometimes we put a little light beneath the windows.”

She saves Christmas gift wrapping each year, cuts it up and uses it for wallpaper inside the gingerbread house for the next season.

“We like to try all kinds of fun stuff,” she said. The couple often makes several smaller houses to give to friends and family as gifts.

Danny is a big help. Alice is stricken with cerebral palsy and epilepsy, and has the use of only one hand. So, Danny holds the gingerbread house pieces in place while Alice uses a special cake-decorating bottle to apply the royal icing and glue the parts together.

“Before, I had to use toothpicks and spatulas, but that was really hard,” she said. “It’s been a real treat to have the decorating bottles.”

The gingerbread itself is made from scratch. It takes about a day to harden, and about a week to make all the parts.

“I make the bread, and he cuts out the parts,” Alice said. “We made a log house this year.”

The assembly process starts with putting two walls together on a large board that serves as the base. They let it stand for half a day to make sure it’s sealed. After the walls are assembled, the roof goes on.

“We use special gumdrops to help seal the roof, then we put the chimney on and decorate that,” she said.

The house is decorated with all sorts of yummy marshmallows, gumdrops, peppermint sticks and candy canes. There’s a wreath on the door, and the yard is filled with candy and little decorated trees.

The house itself is about six inches by nine inches, and about 10 inches tall. All except the Christmas wrap wallpaper and the lights is edible.

“The hard part is gluing it all together,” Danny said. “Sometimes it’s hard to get it to stand up before the glue sets. It’s not something you can do in one day.”

Danny ended up decorating most of this year’s gingerbread house.

“I retired four years ago, so this gives me something to do,” he said. “It’s fun, especially since I can’t play golf this time of year.”

Each year, the new gingerbread house is prominently displayed as a centerpiece on the china hutch in the kitchen, adding a big dose of holiday cheer to the Adams household each Christmas season.

[email protected]

baking with Bill & Sheila

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