Gingerbread goodness

You’ll need…

• 175g butter
• 175g soft dark brown sugar
• 3tbsp golden syrup
• 700g plain flour
• 1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2tsp ground ginger
• 2tsp mixed spice
• 1tsp ground cinnamon
• 50ml water
• 2 medium eggs

To make your gingerbread…

1. Heat the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a small pan over a low heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then set aside to cool.
2. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices in a big bowl. Then, crack the eggs into another bowl and whisk.
3. Pour the butter mixture into the flour with the eggs and water. Mix well and then use your hands to bring it together into a ball.
4. Wrap the dough and chill it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

There are loads of cool Christmassy things you can bake with your gingerbread, our faves are the Christmas cookies and the gingerbread stable.

Top tip

Ask an adult for help when using the oven.

For the Christmas cookies…

1. Grease and line your baking sheet with non-stick baking paper. Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan).
2. Dust your worktop with icing sugar, then knead the dough until smooth and roll it out to the thickness of a pound coin. Cut out your horse shapes, starting at the edge and fit in as many as possible, then re-roll and cut it again.
3. Bake your cookies for around eight minutes. Keep an eye on the biscuits, because they can burn easily if left too long! Once cooked, cool them on a wire rack.
4. Now it’s time to get creative! You can decorate your cookies however you like, using icing pens to make different patterns or you could even try icing lace to make it super pretty and detaile

For the gingerbread stable…

Follow the same process as above, but use the template (bit.ly/GINGERBREAD_HOUSE) to cut out the shapes so you have all five parts of the stable. Bake until golden brown, then leave to cool completely on a wire rack. Assemble your stable using royal icing to stick the pieces together. Then decorate however you like with whatever tasty treats you want!