I need a really good gingerbread recipe

[PrettyCandles]

i want to make a gingerbread house for the dc to decorate, but all the gingerbread recipes I've got turn out like gingery cardboard. I think they sacrifice flavour and texture in favour of structural integrity! But there must be a recipe that comes out with the outside crispy enough to stand up and support its weight, and the inside soft, chewy and flavoursome.

Anyone have such a recipe?

The thing is, once it's made up into a house and left out to be admired for a month or so, are you actually going ot want to eat it afterwards?

I've made them in the past and suffered from caved-in walls, walls that don't fit etc. So last year I bought a gingerbread house kit from Aldi - you decorate it yourself so they've done the hard bit & left you with the fun!They've got them again this year.

Try this one. The gingerbread is very nice.

This is the best gingerbread recipe I've ever found - came from a silver spoon ad in a magazine years ago (hence the brand names in the ingredients list...)

350g (12 oz) Plain Flour
5ml (level tsp ) Bicarbonate of soda
10 ml ( 2 level tsp) ground ginger
100g (4 oz) butter or block margarine
175g ( 6 oz) Silver spoon Demerara Sugar
60 ml ( 4 level tbsp ) Silver Spoon Golden Syrup
1 egg beaten
Demerara sugar to decorate ( Tip: sprinkle an extra layer of sugar on top just before putting in oven to give them a little armour of crunchiness )

Gas mark 5 (190c or 375 F)

Pre heat oven
Grease 3 baking sheets.
Sift flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into bowl.
Rub in fat until mixture looks like fine crumbs.
Stir in sugar.
Beat syrup into egg and stir into bowl.
Mix to a dough
Take out bowl and knead until smooth.
Divide it into two
Roll out on floured surface to about 0.5cm (1/4 inch ) thickness
Stamp out figures and place apart on baking sheets.
Finally sprinkle with a little Demerara sugar.
Bake for 12 - 15 mins
Cool slightly then transfer to a wire rack
Makes 12

They're not really chewy though, they are crunchy. Unless you leave them for a day or so.

There is a link to one on the chat with Dan Lepard at the top of the active convos page. It is really good!

Try the one on the BBC Good Food website. Even I can make it