Spice up your Christmas

From baking your own gifts to creating a stellar centrepeice, it just wouldn’t be Christmas without gingerbread.

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Add some spice to your Christmas with these three gingerbread ideas that are sure to get your guests talking.

Gingerbread recipe

The key to a good gingerbread recipe is to bake a biscuit that tastes great, holds its shape and can tolerate a bit of handling. It needs to be rolled to perfection, chilled after cutting and then baked in a pre-heated oven. Miss one of these steps and your gingerbread creation may look like something straight out of a Dr Seuss book.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of self-raising flour
• 1-1/2 cups of plain flour
• 1 tablespoon of ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of allspice
• 1 cup of firmly packed brown sugar
• 185g of unsalted butter, chilled and chopped
• 1/2 cup of golden syrup
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup of pure icing sugar

Directions:

1. Mix the dry ingredients together. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
2. Mix together the eggs and the golden syrup. Fold into the breadcrumb mixture with a knife until a dough begins to form. Knead the dough gently until it is soft and pliable.
3. Cover the dough with cling wrap then pop it in the fridge overnight.
4. When you are ready to start baking, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
5. Once the dough is thoroughly chilled, roll it out to 5-millimetre thickness between two sheets of baking paper. Cut it into the desired shapes then carefully place each shape on a baking tray lined with baking paper and pop it in the freezer for 15 minutes or until it is cold and firm.
6. Remove from the freezer and bake for 10–15 minutes, checking regularly, until golden. Cool on a wire rack before icing with royal icing.

Gingerbread village

Who needs a house when you can make your own village? Sure, this little gingerbread street looks like a lot of work but it’s just as easy as a big house to put together and much more impressive.

Ingredients:

• 1 gingerbread template
• 1/2 batch of gingerbread
• Royal icing (can be purchased in a packet from most supermarkets)
• Piping bag or snap lock plastic bag with a small hole cut in one corner

Directions:

1. Cut out the template shapes from the pre-prepared gingerbread. Bake then let cool completely.
2. Once your gingerbread is cool it is time to assemble your village!
3. First, pick out the board you would like to assemble your village on. A solid wood chopping board is a good choice.
4. Then simply stick the walls to each other so that there are two rectangles on opposite sides, and two pointy ended rectangles on the other opposing sides. Wait until the walls are set and are holding together before attempting to stick on the roof.
5. When everything is set and structurally sound, ice the outside of your gingerbread village to decorate before sprinkling on a good amount of pure icing sugar to create a snowy effect.

Gingerbread reindeer

Cute packaged in boxes of 12 (don’t forget to make one with a red nose!), these Swedish-inspired reindeer may look just like the real thing but rest assured they taste much, much sweeter.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 batch of gingerbread
• 1 reindeer cookie cutter
• Royal icing (can be purchased in a packet from most supermarkets)
• Piping bag or snap lock plastic bag with a small hole cut in one corner

Directionss:

1. These couldn’t get any simpler. Simply cut out reindeer shapes from the gingerbread dough following the instructions above and, once cool, ice with small dots or a decorative pattern, it’s up to you!

Gingerbread tree

Don’t have a Christmas tree this year? Make your own gingerbread version! Scale it up as big as you like and decorate with coloured icing and sweets to your heart’s desire.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 batch of gingerbread
• 1 Christmas tree cookie cutter or 1 large cardboard Christmas tree template
• Royal icing (can be purchased in a packet from most supermarkets)
• Piping bag or snap lock plastic bag with a small hole cut in one corner

Directions:

1. Roll out the dough following the instructions above and cut out a number of small Christmas trees using the cookie cutter. If you would like to make a larger tree, simply cut out two large biscuits from your template.
2. Next, cut half the Christmas tree shapes in half lengthwise. Gently arrange them on a baking sheet and bake until golden and hard.
3. To put your trees together, simply take a whole tree and one of the half tree shapes and stick the half tree shape to the whole tree using royal icing. Once it is set, repeat with another half on the other side.
4. If you are making a large tree, try to make sure the bottom of your tree is as flat as possible and cut a circle out of the remaining dough to bake and use as a base for your creation.

More Christmas recipes

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Festive drinks to celebrate
Christmas dip trio