Gingerbread Trees and Gingerbread Men - Chrimbly counting - 4

A spring break in the lakes, some of the clearest, bluest skies imaginable. We stumbled across a cafe that used bicycles as way markers. It appealed to the boys (all three). I meant the cakes, not the bikes ....... !

Gingerbread gifts and decorations.

You will need:

Your favourite gingerbread recipe * or the one at the end of this post

Biscuit cutters (if you don't have the shapes you need, draw them on card, cut out and use these as a template to cut your biscuit dough)

Ribbons or threads

Decorative tin or box

Icing sugar (optional)

1.Make a goodly amount of dough (you never know, you might end up sampling the made biscuits, necessary quality control type stuff.....)

2. Cut out your figures, we did a mixture of gingerbread men and chrimbly trees
3. The cooked biscuits could potentially be eaten that day (oops - been there/done that!) ...

4. ...or sprinkled with icing sugar and served with a mug of tea for a festive family get together

5. You can, once cooled, pack them carefully in a suitable container - I have a small festive tin I use - give as a gift or to take with you to share with friends and family.

 6. And if you can bare to sacrifice a few biscuits, insert a hole before placing into the oven,  cook them for a few minutes longer to harden and when once cooled thread a ribbon through the hole and hang up on your tree :) When you take your decorations down, the biscuits could be crumbled up and given to birds in the garden.

*Gingerbread Men recipe

350 gm (12 oz) plain flour

5mls (1 tsp) bicarbinate of soda

10mls (2 tsp) ground ginger - depending on your tastes you could add more ginger!

100gm (4oz) butter

175gm (6oz) soft brown sugar

60ml (4 level tbsp) golden syrup

1 egg - beaten

Line 2 - 3 baking trays with greaseproof paper (non-stick).

Sift flour, bicarb and ginger into a bowl, rub in the butter until it looks like fine bread crumbs.

Stir in the sugar.

Stir the syrup into the egg and mix into the dry ingredients.

Mix well, knead until smooth.

Roll out to about 5mm (1/4 inch) thick. Cut your biscuits and lay out on the baking trays.

Bake at 190 deg c ( 375 deg F), mark 5 for 12 - 15 minutes ntil golden.

Cool slightly then place on a wire rack to cool fully - enjoy!

If you have been inspired by my tutorial, 

please could you be so kind to link back to my blog

I would love to see your gingerbread biscuits and what you did with them!

Linking with Julie's Advent

#crafts  #christmascrafts  #handmadewithlove #handicraft #inspiredby #imadethis #livelovecraftme