| Do you remember being young? Being six or seven? Your Mum would call you down, saying that she had done some baking and would you like to help cut them out? You don't even really need to be asked, of course you want to help, you get to be a grown up! When comes to making ginger biscuits, and you are a child, they always have to be cut into boy shaped biscuits. After all, isn't that the law, or something? Oh to be young again, time can't be changed but biscuits can still be made. We can still ponder on our childhoods.
Ingredients?
The recipe that I am following should make around twenty boy-shaped biscuits but the amount of biscuits that are made generally depends on the size cutter you have chosen to use. Of course this recipe can also be used to make plain gingerbread biscuits. To make the boys you will need the follow ingredients:
200grams (or 8oz) of plain flour (you can use either brown, wholemeal or white flour depending on your preference. Using wholemeal flour will change the texture of the biscuit and make it slightly wheaty.)
75grams (or 3oz) of margarine.
75grams (or 3oz) of moist brown sugar (it is essential that the sugar is brown as this will give the biscuit a caramel taste and colour.)
75grams (or 3oz) of golden syrup.
One teaspoon of baking powder.
One teaspoon of ground ginger (you can increase this if you would like your biscuits to be more gingery, once you've made the recipe once you can use trial and error to come up with the taste that you want!)
Half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda.
You may want to decorate the gingerbread boys, for this you may use a few currants as eyes, etc or you may prefer to ice the boys when they are finished cooking.
Method?
The method for making gingerbread boys is very simple; it can sometimes be made using the "all in one" method but I prefer to do it this way. Here is how:
1. Preheat your oven to Gas Mark 6 or 180°C. Grease a baking tray in preparation for putting the gingerbread boys on.
2. Cream the margarine and the sugar in a large mixing bowl, until light and fluffy. It should have quite a dark colour to it, which is because of the brown sugar.
3. Sieve the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl and then knead thoroughly. The mixture should then come together into a pliable mixture that is ready to be rolled out.
4. Prepare your work surface by sprinkling flour so to avoid the mixture sticking to the surface when rolling out.
5. Place the mixture onto the floured surface and roll out until the mixture is about 1/2cm in thickness. Then, with your cutter, cut out as many gingerbread boys as possible ad then place them on your greased baking tray. Continue this process until there is no more mixture left.
6. Now put your baking tray into the oven and cook for approximately ten minutes or until they are golden brown in colour (cooking times may change as ovens can cook at slower rates).
7. Once cooked, take out and leave to cool and then decorate if you wish.
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