So…my daughter started school this year and naturally, I want to be involved in the school community so when they announced the school Christmas fair I saw it as an opportunity to learn some new things, meet new people and bake. A lot. I thought gingerbread decorations might be a good thing to go for as easy sellable things with just a bit of cake thrown in for good measure (or actually in case I totally ruined the biscuits and needed to have something half decent on my stall). 100 decorated biscuits was a big ask but I figured I’d give it a go and if no one was interested or if they all ended up looking awful I could just eat them all myself....As it goes, I sold everything, even the biscuits I hadn't had time to decorate!
To prepare, I spent the equivalent to around 3 days on Pinterest getting completely overwhelmed and intimidated but I did learn an awful lot about biscuit decoration and this is what I’m happy to pass on…
1. Roll out the dough to no less than between 3/4 -1cm thickness
2. Roll dough between two bits of greaseproof paper which not only saves you scrubbing flour off your work tops, but also stops the dough cracking
3. If you have time to, freeze before baking, if not, refrigerate. Even for 10 mins as this will give the biscuits the best chance of keeping their shape. I know it's annoying but I promise it's worth it.
4. Test run one cookie in the oven before you bake a batch to make sure you get the timing right. Typically, mine took 8 mins in the oven at around 180 but all ovens differ.
5. Try not to check on them while cooking as the cold air will disrupt the bake.
6. Get them out BEFORE the edges turn brown. You want them soft so they’ll keep for longer.
7. Invest in icing nozzles and a squeeze bottle. The icing nozzle (I used a #2) is used to pipe the outline of the cookie and then the squeeze bottles is used to to ‘flood’ the inside of your cookie in slightly watered down royal icing,creating a base for your decorating.
8. Depending on what you are using the cookies for, you should probably use meringue powder in place of egg whites in your royal icing then you don’t need to worry about the raw egg factor and the icing doesn’t even need to be refrigerated. That way it’s always at the right consistency for you to use. (Just keep in a tupperware box on your counter top)
9. If you want them for the weekend, this is really how you should plan:
Tuesday PM - make the dough and refrigerate overnight
Wednesday - roll out and cut into shapes then either flash freeze before baking OR layer in airtight tupperware between greaseproof paper and Freez or re-refrigerate overnight
Thursday AM - bake and cool
PM- flood
Friday - decorate
I have, for many years used the Hummingbird Bakery recipe for gingerbread. It just works. It contains everything you would imagine gingerbread to contain, the recipe doubles well and is completely delicious.
400g plain flour
¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
2tsp ground ginger
2tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground allspice
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp salt
180g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g soft dark brown sugar or dark muscovado sugar
1 egg
125g black treacle (This will seem like a crazy amount when you're pouring it in but don't panic)
Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl and set aside.
Put the butter and sugar in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and cream on slow speed until light and fluffy.
Turn the mixer up to medium speed and beat in the egg and treacle, scraping any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
Turn the mixer back down to slow speed and slowly add the flour mixture a couple of tablespoons at a time, stopping to scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
Once an even dough has formed, take it out of the mixer, divide into 3 and wrap each piece in clingfilm.
Leave to rest overnight in the fridge.
When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 170°C (325°F) Gas 3.
Take the dough out of the fridge and leave to soften for about 10 minutes.
Roll out the dough to a thickness of about 1cm with a rolling pin. Cut out shapes with the biscuit cutters. Arrange the cookies on the prepared baking trays (with space between) and bake in the preheated oven for about 8-10 minutes.
Leave the cookies to cool slightly on the trays before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
For icing and decorating see 'Royal Icing' post