I'm sure we all have a kitchen nemesis? Well mine is gingerbread men. I know they look easy and harmless but I'm sure they have been created purely to drive me to the depths of frustration and insanity.
My attempts at gingerbread men never go well. Okay, it's not entirely true. They normally taste fine but their looks? Well lets just say they leave something to be desired.
To start with, I can never get any mixture to resemble breadcrumbs, ever, but that is a minor point. When I form the "dough" it generally just ends up as a sticky gloopy mess. I really do not have the cold hands required for pastry and dough making and I always get myself into a right (sticky) pickle. I have on occasion righted this by adding a bit more flour to take the edge off the stickiness.
Once I have got to grips with the catastrophic gloop problem I can then get on with the best part - cutting out the shapes. I lovingly lay them out on baking trays and pop them into the oven where they slowly but surely start to mutate. My lovely happy, slim and once slender gingerbread men turned into horrible, fat, bloated, featureless mutants!!
I have no idea what goes wrong and this is where I am asking you. Should I leave out the bicarb? I am not rolling the dough thin enough? Perhaps I should just vow to never make them again!
For reference this is the recipe I use;
Ingredients
350g/12oz plain flour
5ml/1tsp bicarbonate of soda
10ml/2tsp ground ginger
100g/4oz butter, diced
175g/6oz Tate & Lyle Light Brown Soft Sugar
60ml/4tbsp Lyle’s Golden Syrup
1 (size 3) egg, beaten
30ml/2tbsp milk
Method
Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger. Add the butter and rub in until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.
In a small bowl beat together the syrup, egg and milk. Stir into the dry ingredients and mix to a dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth.
Roll the mixture out on a lightly floured surface to about 5mm/¼ in thick and using a gingerbread cutter cut out 12 gingerbread men or 22 small boys and carefully transfer to baking trays lined with parchment paper.
Decorate the biscuits with the dried fruit and bake in a preheated oven at 190°C/375°F/Gas 5 for 12-15 minutes for large gingerbread men or 10-12 minutes for small gingerbread boys until golden. Allow to cool slightly and harden before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
350g/12oz plain flour
5ml/1tsp bicarbonate of soda
10ml/2tsp ground ginger
100g/4oz butter, diced
175g/6oz Tate & Lyle Light Brown Soft Sugar
60ml/4tbsp Lyle’s Golden Syrup
1 (size 3) egg, beaten
30ml/2tbsp milk
Method
Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger. Add the butter and rub in until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.
In a small bowl beat together the syrup, egg and milk. Stir into the dry ingredients and mix to a dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth.
Roll the mixture out on a lightly floured surface to about 5mm/¼ in thick and using a gingerbread cutter cut out 12 gingerbread men or 22 small boys and carefully transfer to baking trays lined with parchment paper.
Decorate the biscuits with the dried fruit and bake in a preheated oven at 190°C/375°F/Gas 5 for 12-15 minutes for large gingerbread men or 10-12 minutes for small gingerbread boys until golden. Allow to cool slightly and harden before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Help me! Perhaps you can give me some hints and tips? How on earth do you make beautiful gingerbread men!
love & kisses
Mrs M x
Mrs M x
I'm not sure but somewhere in the back of my mind I have a vague memory of it being the milk that causes this to happen and should use water instead. That recipe is similar to the one I use but it only has 2oz butter. They are a bit crunchier but don't spread.
ReplyDeleteBought some ginger today, going to make some dinosaurs!