gingerbread biscuits

Today was an overcast wintery saturday and spent the morning with M & m making, decorating and of course eating gingerbread biscuits. M & M are quite the cooks, M is working out how to read and follow a recipe, little m loved the challenge of rolling and cutting out biscuits. Decorating and eating were of course the highlights. I used this Taste. com recipe http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/21346/gingerbread+men. It was a bit dry and crumbly so i added an extra tablespoon of melted butter, and when making the icing i added only a portion of the egg white so the icing wasn't too runny. All and all quite a nice way to pass some time....

Ingredients

• 150g butter, chopped
• 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, sifted
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger, sifted
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, sifted
• 3 cups plain flour, sifted
• milk chocolate bits, to decorate

• Royal icing

• 1 eggwhite
• 1 1/4 cups pure icing sugar, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Method

1. Place butter, sugar and honey in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil. Remove from heat. Stir in bicarbonate of soda. Transfer to a large, heatproof bowl. Cool.

2. Stir in egg, ginger, mixed spice, baking powder and flour until combined. Divide dough in half. Shape into discs. Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm.

3. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease 3 baking trays. Line with baking paper. Roll 1 dough disc between 2 sheets of baking paper until 3mm thick. Using a 7cm gingerbread man cutter, cut shapes from dough, re-rolling dough scraps. Place, 2cm apart, on prepared trays. Repeat with remaining pastry disc.

4. Bake, 1 tray at a time, for 8 minutes or until just firm to touch. Stand on trays for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

5. Make icing: Using a fork, beat eggwhite in a bowl until foamy. Gradually beat in icing sugar until combined. Stir in lemon juice. Spoon icing into a snap-lock bag. Snip off 1 corner. Decorate gingerbread men with icing and chocolate bits. Set aside for 20 minutes or until set. Serve.