The Gingerbread Men

Christmas Cookies Finale... the most favorite; The Gingerbread Men!

I think this is the last cookies from our kitchen for this festive season, and I will start to bake Christmas 'easy and quick' bread for my family. After many-many times hearing the same question,"Mom / Honey, can you make gingerbread men, pleaseee ?", then followed by the 'choir',"yes Mommy, please" and repeated all over again... Yup, I made it!

Just to share with you a bit more about me; now let me tell you my 'very little' secret *open your ears bigger*... pssst, "I'm a collector of December edition 'food' magazines". I do love to collect the Martha Stewart Living, Better Homes and Gardens, Delicious, Donna Hay, or the other food magazines, especially December edition. That's all I want to tell for now :)

With full of joy, this time I tried Donna Hay's recipe, I got from 'my collection' Donna Hay Magazine issue 48, Dec/Jan 2010. Very easy and simple recipe, and I'm very satisfied with the result.

Put all the ingredients inside a food processor, let it mix them for me, and the dough is ready. Put inside the fridge, roll, cut, bake and continue decorating with the icing.

If you don't have 'big' sweet tooth, just put a little bit icing, like buttons or eyes and mouth. For me that's enough. But for my children, they prefer to have the full dressed of the gingerbread men.

Baking any christmas cookies always bring me the memory of the time when my mother used to bake christmas cookies for her children. Honestly, gingerbread cookies were not popular in my childhood. I grew up in a remote small town in South Sulawesi where there was no bakery and most of the lady had to bake their cookies by themselves, including my mom. For us, the popular cookies are kaastengel, nastar, snow white, sagu keju (cheese with sagoo flour cookie) and peanuts cookies. Last year, I posted the pictures of them in this posting.

Weeks before Christmas, the ladies started to bake some cookies, and kept in jars for Christmas. Hmmm, it doesn't work that way in my home. Whenever I bake cookies, it'll be gone for 1-2 days. That happened with this gingerbread men. Within 24 hours since it came out from the oven, 45 pieces of gingerbread men gone! So, now I'm not sure this will be my last baking cookies for this season :)

Gingerbread Mix :
1/2 cup (90gr) brown sugar
2 1/2 cups (375 gr) plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted
2 teaspoon ground ginger, sifted
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of (baking) soda

Place the sugar, flour, ginger and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl and mix to combinge. Spoon the mixture into an airtight jar and use to make gingerbread men (recipe, below).
Store in a cool dark place for up to 1 month. Makes 1 quantity.

Gingerbread Men
1 quantity gingerbread mix, (see recipe, above)
125 gr butter, chopped
2/3 cup (230 gr) golden syrup

Icing
1/2 cup (80 gr) icing (confectioner's) sugar sifted
2 teaspoons hot water

Preheat oven to 180C (355F). place the gingerbread mix, butter and golden syrup in the bowl of a food processor and process until a snooth dough forms.

Divided the dough into two pieces and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm. Roll dough out between two sheets of non stick baking paper to 4 mm thick.

Use gingerbread man cookie cutters to cut shapes from the dough. Place on baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper and bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool on trays.

To make the icing, combine the sugar and hot water and stir until smooth. Place in a piping bag with a small nozzle and use to pipe buttons on the front of the gingerbread men.

Make 12 large and 20 small.
Recipe Source : Donna Hay Magazine issue 48, Dec/Jan 2010

Tips :
*for easy release, dip cookie cutters in flour before cutting.
*once the dough is prepared, chill it in the refrigerator until firm and ready for rolling.
Have a good Thursday night.