Ginger Bread Men recipe :)

Hey everyone :)

I am a little bit late on this post as i said I would post it at the weekend. But it was just hectic with my little ones birthday party. It all went great though thank God and she had the best time!! so much so when she woke from a nap after she head straight for the front door crying to go back bless her!!
         So i love baking and any excuse to make these yummy gingerbread men I jump on board. These are the nicest gingerbread men ever!!! They're very simple to make if you follow the step by step guide. :) These are a huge hit with guests at a party and of course the kids!! I have made them for Halloween,Christmas and birthdays so they can be used for every occasion and can be decorated any way you wish to do so. I haven't been very adventurous with the decorating yet but I will get there haha. So here is the recipe below! Enjoy :)

Recipe

Ingredients

Melted butter to grease

125 g butter at room temperature 

100g (1/2 cup firmly packed) brown sugar 

!25ml (1/2 cup) golden syrup

1 egg separated 

375g plain flour (2 1/2 cups)

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon mixed spice (optional)

1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda

plain flour to dust

1 bar of Cooking chocolate melted to decorate

150 g (1 cup) sifted  icing sugar

8-10 drops of any food colouring you would like       

smarties/jelly tots/buttons to decorate 

*NOTE: if you not have time to make up the icing you can just use the icing pens, you can buy a set of different colours in you local Tesco, Dunnes Stores or any supermarket really. They cost about 2.99 for about 3-5 different colours. They're very handy. 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Brush 2 baking trays with melted butter to lightly grease
2. Place the butter and sugar in a bowl, using an electric whisk, mix together until pale and creamy. Add the golden syrup and egg yolk and beat until combined. stir in the flour ginger, mixed spice and bicarbonate soda. Turn on to a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Roll in to a disc and wrap in cling film,  and place the dough in to the fridge for 30 minutes. 
3. For the icing, place egg white in to a clean dry bowl. Using the electric whisk, whisk the eggs until soft peaks perform. Gradually add icing sugar to the egg whisk until soft peaks form. divide icing among 3 bowls, cover with cling film and put them in the fridge. Add your food colouring to 2 of the bowls and keep one white if you wish or you can add food colouring to all 3, whichever you may prefer. 
4. Place the dough on to baking paper or on a clean surface with flour on it (so it wont stick). Roll out the dough till it is about 3 mm thick, I like to make nice thick ones too so you can do that either :) use a gingerbread men cutter, I have a mammy, daddy, girl and boy ones which i got in Tesco for 7.99 but i'm sure you can get them cheaper elsewhere. cut each one out and place on baking tray. Repeat this process with excess dough. 
5. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until brown. Remove from oven and place on cooling rack. 
6. And for the fun part. when the the gingerbread men have cooled, place the cooking chocolate in a microwaveable bowl and put in microwave till it is melted. Dip the hands, top of head and feet in to the chocolate and place on plates to dry. Then when that is done using your icing draw on funny, smiley, sad, scared faces on to the gingerbread men and add 2 or 3 dots down their front to add some smarties, buttons or jelly tots :) 

SO there you go now you have delicious gingerbread men so pop on the kettle, sit back and enjoy :) you wont regret making these :) 

Thank you all for reading! hope you find the recipe easy to follow and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me :) 

See you all soon

Thanks for reading

Lots of love

Grá 

xxx

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