Gingerbread Men!
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A chewy & crunchy Christmassy biscuit that everyone will love to bake & decorate!
Christmas recipes
I have been asking on my Facebook page recently what sort of Christmas themed recipes everyone wanted and this was 100% one of them – like so many people asked for it, I couldn’t not bake it – GINGERBREAD MEN!
The only other Christmassy biscuits I have on my blog already are my white chocolate & cranberry cookies and my chocolate orange cookies and others – and don’t get me wrong, both of these are delicious – however, they aren’t gingerbread men.
Gingerbread
I have had my troubles with gingerbread over the years strangely enough, even if it seems like one of the most common Christmas bakes.
I have tried other recipes and they have all gone so wrong – spreading so much they form a giant cookie, or being so crunchy I feel like my teeth will break – this recipe though, its the perfect mix of crunchy & chewy, and they don’t spread! The men actually still look like men when they come out of the oven!
But anyway, this recipe honestly is my go-to gingerbread biscuit recipe, I have never failed with it since I developed the recipe and it has been a massive hit with all of my taste testers over time. I find it’s the perfect mix of all things spicy, and the biscuit is both crunchy and chewy at the same time which is what I am after in a gingerbread biscuit.
A classic
Yes, I realise you are supposed to call these gingerbread biscuits, or gingerbread people these days, but I stuck with the classic name. Also, the cookie cutters I have used for years are some my granny had, and the ‘female’ one was lost a long time ago… Needless to say, I could have just bought more, but I wanted to stick to traditions in my festive baking ways.
Other gingerbread recipes
I updated the photos for this post but the recipe has stayed the same. It’s not something I personally want to mess with any time soon! This sorta recipe is the perfect bake to top and decorate the gingerbread drip cake recipe I have, and my Christmas gingerbread cake recipe!
A must try recipe
I get several messages every year about what my favourite gingerbread biscuit recipe is and have I got anything to save the bakers from every other recipe they have tried, and this one is the solution. That is not meant to sound bigheaded in any way, but I honestly have never had any issues with this recipe in the entire time I have baked it.
Tradition
As I write this, its the day before the 30th of November, so all I can think about is how its ‘officially’ the festive season starting tomorrow, and how I can start munching on my advent calendars tomorrow.
Every year, I bake gingerbread men to munch on, and they last a good while as well. One of the best tricks? Making a gingerbread hot chocolate and dunking *several* biscuits into the drink whilst decorating the house.
Gingerbread is one of the simplest, but best festive bakes around. There is the occasional person out there that doesn’t like gingerbread, which is fair enough, but you can easily play around with the levels of spices to suit your personal tastes. I like my biscuits to be really ‘gingery’ but my brother prefers them to have a bit more spice from cinnamon in.
I hope you love this recipe as much as I do! Enjoy! X
Gingerbread Men!
Ingredients
- 375 g plain flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 3 tsps ground ginger
- 120 g unsalted butter (cold & cubed)
- 175 g light brown sugar
- 5 tbsps golden syrup
- 1 medium egg
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 190C/180C Fan and line 3-4 baking trays with parchment paper (or do it in two batches if you only have two trays!)
- Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda, and ginger to a large bowl and add the cold, cubed butter to the bowl
- Rub together with your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs! (Or mix the four ingredients in a food processor till its breadcrumbs!)
- Mix the sugar into the mix and combine, and then add the golden syrup and egg - beat with a spatula/your hands until it is a smooth dough.
- Knead the biscuit dough, and then roll the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface.
- Roll it out to 1/2cm thickness and cut out your desired shapes! I did gingerbread men, snowmen, and Christmas trees!
- Place them on the lined baking trays and bake in the oven for 10-11 minutes, cool on a wire rack fully, and then decorate how you please!
Notes
- I like my biscuits very gingery otherwise it just doesn’t float my boat, but feel free to use less! (Or even a different spice – like cinnamon!)
- These biscuits will last for about a week in an airtight container, if they last that long!
- It's best to decorate with things such as sweets, chocolate, or royal icing!
- I don't chill my dough before baking.
- You can add in 1/2tsp of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice if you prefer it spicier!
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J x
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Brilliant recipe. Turned out exactly as described with a perfect blend of crunch and chewiness. The batch only lasted about half an hour and they were all gone.
made this today, sorry really didnt like this. Never put an egg in before followed recipe exactly and they puffed up but never hardened up. Will go back to school years recipe don’t know why I changed other than to try something different, sometimes old way is best way
Best gingerbread I ever tasted !!!! Couldn’t stop eating them ! Thank you xx
That is definitely wrong, mine were amazing.
Amazing – super soft and addictive
Followed recipe but was soooo sloppy! Had to pretty much double the flour
The same happened to me I added double the flower and it kept breaking and all and they came out horrible I followed the recipe tho so I don’t know what I did
Hi there! I’m looking to make these for Christmas treats, would I be able to make the dough cut the shapes then freeze and bake when needed? if yes how long would you bake for?
thanks so much!
Yes that should be alright – I would just add 1-2 minutes extra time! X
Hi, is this recipe suitable for gingerbread house?
As long as it’s baked for long enough to make the biscuit harder rather than a softer gingerbread it would be fine!
Omg amazing thanks Jane
Son and I were gonna decorate these as a practice run for Halloween but they aren’t going to last long enough to decorate 😂
Hi Beth can I ask, was your dough quite sticky when you came to roll this ? I’m just making them as we speak and my dough is sticky
Wow wow wow, Fantastic recipe and they were enjoyed by all who ate them. Definitely a recipe to use again and again.
Hello, what size cutter did you use for these?
Can these be cut then frozen? Thanks
Yeah that should be fine!!
This is the best gingerbread recipe I have found. If you get the timing right, It’s nice and crunchy on the outside and softer in the middle. I found that the mixture was really dry after I added the syrup and egg, so I added a little water, then it was too wet and sticky so I added a little more flour, I had to play around with it a bit until I got a really lovely soft dough. Lovely taste and made our house smell wonderful,
First time making gingerbread men, brilliant recipe! Thank you 😊
Absolutely love making these! They are so simple and easy to do. You can bake them for 10mins if you like them really soft, or just leave them a minute or two longer for them to be a little crunchier.
Great recipe!
Excellent recipe – best gingerbread one I have tried! I’m an absolute beginner and the gingerbread men turned out perfectly. Thank you!
Made these for the first time grandson loved them he has now made them with his mum lovely