Gingerbread Men

Step 1

Put the plain flour, light brown soft sugar, dark brown soft sugar, ground ginger, mixed spice, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a mixing bowl and stir together. Or you can put them straight into your food processor and pulse it a few times to combine the ingredients

Step 2

Put the flour mixture into a food processor and add the butter, pulse the mixture a few times until the butter is mixed in and the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. If you are making the dough by hand, add the butter to the flour mixture and use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. You can also use a pastry blender or a fork

Step 3

Add the egg and golden syrup and mix until combined, you should be able to squeeze a handful of the mixture in your hand and it sticks together to form a dough. Use your hands to push all the mixture together into a big lump of dough. Wrap it in clingfilm and chill it in the fridge for 30 minutes

Step 4

Pre-heat your oven to 160C Fan/350F/Gas Mark 4, and line a few baking trays with baking paper

Step 5

Roll out the dough onto a floured surface to a thickness of 3-5mm. Cut out the gingerbread man shapes (or any shapes you prefer). The cutter I used was 11.5cm tall and 9cm wide. Place the cut out shapes onto the lined baking trays. Keep re-rolling the dough until it is all used up

Step 6

Bake the gingerbread biscuits for 12-13 minutes. If you can't bake them all straight away, put the dough or the cut out shapes in the fridge and bake in batches. Leave to cool on the trays for 10 minutes, then move to a cooling rack to cool fully

Step 7

If you want to make your own royal icing, put the ingredients into the bowl of your stand mixer and mix using the whisk attachment on a medium-high speed (I used speed for 7-10 minutes until the mixture has thickened. Tip it into a piping bag and snip a little bit off the end. Pipe onto the biscuits to decorate, and add any sweets or sprinkles of your choice

Step 8

Store the leftovers in an airtight container in a cool place, the gingerbread will last around 1 week