GAIL’s Gingerbread Men Recipe
With Halloween on its way, GAIL’s have shared with us their gingerbread recipe. Enjoy baking them at home, or go over to GAIL’s to pick up some of their Halloween treats.
Image: GAIL’s
Ingredients
- 75g butter, at room temperature
- 75g caster sugar
- 35g treacle
- 25g golden syrup
- 3 tbsp whole milk
- 1 egg yolk
- 225g plain flour
- 1 ½ tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground cardamom
- a pinch of ground white pepper
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
Method
- In a large bowl, cream the butter and the sugar together thoroughly until pale and fluffy.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the treacle, the golden syrup, the milk and the egg yolk until completely combined.
- In a third bowl, sift together 200g of the flour, along with all the other dry ingredients. Set the remaining 25g flour aside in case you need it later.
- Add roughly a quarter of the dry ingredients to the creamed butter and sugar and mix in briefly, then add around a third of the milk mixture and stir gently. Repeat, alternating dry and wet ingredients and mixing only gently each time and finishing with the dry ingredients, until everything is combined and you have a slightly sticky dough. Avoid overworking the mixture. You can judge at this point whether you’ll need the reserved flour – the dough should be rather tacky, so try to add only as much flour as is necessary to make it relatively easy to handle. It will firm up once chilled.
- Flatten the dough into a rough rectangle, wrap well in cling film, and chill overnight (or for up to three days). Alternatively, you can freeze the dough for up to two weeks and defrost it overnight in the fridge before using.
- When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 170C. Dust your work surface and a rolling pin very lightly with flour, and roll the chilled dough out to a thin sheet 3-5mm thick.
- Dip your chosen cutter lightly in flour and cut out as many shapes as possible, regrouping and re-using the dough as you go.
- Transfer the biscuits carefully to a baking sheet lined with baking parchment and bake for 10 to 15 minutes – adjust the time depending on the size and shape of your biscuits, and how crisp you like your gingerbread.
- Once baked, these keep brilliantly in an airtight container for up to a week.
