Good Gingerbread Man recipe?

[Blu]

The only one I have comes out like pastry in texture and colour- a bit pale and flabby not like a crisp biscuit. How do you make them like shop-bought ones?

Anyone? Pleeease...
DS is mithering to get on with it and I don't want t make ones that will end up in the bin! I want tried and tested!

I've got a goodish one .. but MI swears by the Delia one (have you got crystallised ginger)?

trotting off to get book whilst you reply

Oooh, than you Twiglett!

I haven't got any crystallized ginger, but could get some. We'll have to aquire half the ingredients anyway, I think. And, sadly, have no Delia books.

12oz plainflour
a tsp bicarb
2 tsp ground ginger
4 oz butter
6 oz light soft brown sugar (although I like to use muscovado instead)
2 tbsp golden syrup (recipe says 4 but always seems too sticky with 4 .. so 2 heaped is what I do)
1 beaten egg

flour, bicar and ginger in bowl and rub in butter till breadcrumps

stir in sugar

beat syrup with egg then stir in

mix to form a dough and knead till smooth (if it feels sticky keep adding flour till it doesn't)

roll out, cut and bake at 180 for 12 - 15 mins

that's from good housekeeping

this looks good but can't be the one MI uses

I don't have delia books I'm afraid

Aha!
I think the syrup is the magic ingredient to making them more crispy than the ones we made before.
Thank you very much

The Delia one is online, hang on a minute. Here . However, I fool around with it a bit - don't bother with the orange, use mixed spice instead of ground cloves, tend to double the ground ginger and add chopped stem ginger too.

Thank you, kitchen goddesses!

DS loves stem ginger, so we will adopt that improvement.

off to get my pinny on and persuade DP to mow lawn.

Back to your book, Twiglett!

am i too late... this is the best best gingerbread recipe i have come across... the bics turn out sooo crispy!!!

... the only thing is that the mixture is incredibley sticky once you've mixed it all up so you have to stick it in the fridge for at least 45 mins... when it does come out of the fridge it is incredibley hard but once you start squishing it about... it get much more managable!.... work quick or it will start to 'melt' again!

also this amount makes a huge wodge... so you can store any that you don't want to bake straight away in an airtight container i the fridge... and it will keep for a while... i once made up the mixture and then didn;t get the chance to bake them and left the mixture for a week in the fridge and when i did get round to baking it .. theyw ere fine!!!

here it is!!!

Ginger Bread Biscuits

Ingredients
450g plain flour
2 tsp Baking powder
3 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
a pinch cayenne pepper (i sometimes leave this out!)
a pinch of Salt
250g unsalted butter, diced
200g caster sugar
3 tbsp golden syrup
1 or 2 medium eggs, beaten

Method

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, ginger , cinnamon , cayenne and salt into

a mixing bowl.

1. Add in the butter and sugar and rub in until the butter is absorbed and

the mixture has a sandy texture.

1. Mix in the syrup and enough of the beaten egg to make a fairly stiff,

smooth dough. Shape the dough into a ball and wrap in cling film. Place the dough in the fridge to firm up for at least 45 minutes.

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4.

1. Roll out the dough to 3mm thickness. Cut out biscuits into desired

shapes.

1. Place the ginger bread biscuits on greased, non-stick baking sheets.

1. Bake the biscuits for 10-12 minutes until golden brown.

1. Remove the biscuits from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheets.

1. Decorate with biscuits with piped royal icing. Store in an airtight

container.