Gingerbread men that actually roll out!

I have tried so many different gingerbread recipes, but none worked, I’d always end up with a sticky mess on the side, until…

Yesterday…

Just don’t look at my piping!!

Ingredients

  • 350g gluten free plain flour (plus extra for dusting work surface)
  • 1 tsp xantham gum
  • 2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (ensure this is gluten free)
  • 100g dairy free butter (the tub stork contains milk, but we use the block stork)
  • 175g dark soft brown sugar
  • 4 tbsp golden syrup
  • 1 egg
  • icing sugar
  • water
  • decorations

Method

  1. Mix flour, xantham gum, spices, bicarbonate of soda in a bowl.
  2. Add the butter in chunks and rub in, until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (try and keep your hands cold – otherwise it becomes quite sticky). Add in the sugar and mix so that it is even throughout.
  3. Add the golden syrup and egg and mix until the mixture starts to come together. Tip mixture out on to floured work surface and form the dough into a smooth ball.
  4. Wrap in clingfilm and then chill for 30 minutes (this is usually when I clean up the kitchen or attend to something else I’m trying to bake at the same time – tempting as it might be do not take it out before.)
  5. Take out of the fridge and roll out (make sure work surface has a lot of flour on it, it can stick quite easily and roll dough out to about the thickness of a £1 coin. Use a gingerbread man cutter and cut them out ( I put them straight onto a parchment lined baking sheet – the warmer they get the harder they are to move), then re-roll the dough until you have used it all up.
  6. Heat the oven to 160C and bake them for approximately 15 minutes until nicely browned.
  7. When cooked put them straight on to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before moving them, they start off soft and as they cool they get harder.
  8. When the biscuits have cooled completely, mix the icing sugar with enough water to make a fairly thick icing. We decorate them with gluten free sugar decorations as my little boy does not like sweets, but decorate how you please.
  9. ENJOY!

Gingerbread house

Over the next couple of weeks, I’m considering using this recipe to make a gingerbread house, Ive tried with several recipes before and its never worked so fingers crossed for me!

Chocolate Fairy Cakes

This is my little boys favourite cake…

Ingredients for cupcakes

  • dairy free butter (I find Vitalite the best)
  • caster sugar
  • vanilla essence
  • eggs (you choose the quantity)
  • gluten free self- raising flour (I find Doves Farm the best, because you do not need to add xantham gum)
  • cocoa powder (ensure no milk in powder)

Method

  1. Weigh your eggs.
  2. Weigh the rest of your ingredients to match the weight of the eggs except the vanilla essence flour and cocoa. For the flour use 3 quarters of the weight of the eggs and for the cocoa use 1 quarter of the weight of the eggs.
  3. Cream the butter and sugar together. Then add a dash of vanilla essence.
  4. Add one egg with a large spoonful of flour / cocoa sieved (with the dairy free butter it seems really easy for the mix to curdle, which is why I add 1 spoonful of flour). Continue until all eggs are incorporated and then add in the rest of the flour/ cocoa through a sieve.
  5. Split between cake cases. I use 1 large teaspoonful in each case and this rises to just below the rim of the cake case.
  6. Then out it in the oven on 180 degrees for 15 minutes.
  7. Take out of the oven, put on a cooling rack and allow to cool.

Ingredients for chocolate butter cream

  • dairy free butter
  • icing sugar
  • Cocoa powder
  • sugar strands or decorations (however make sure your sugar strands do not contain gluten, milk or soya).

Method

I do not weigh out these ingredients because with the dairy free butter most conventional recipes do not work and the mixture is too runny.

  1. Choose an amount of butter and put it in a bowl. Then add some cocoa and icing sugar and combine it. Keep going with adding the icing sugar and the cocoa powder (with the cocoa powder, I look at the colour of the icing to judge this).
  2. Keep going the butter icing needs to be thicker than what you are used to for the mixture not to split, when it is holding its shape in the bowl and is fairly thick, it is ready. Unfortunately I found this a bit trial and error, but better it be too thick than not set.
  3. Use a piping bag (| know this is bad for the environment, but I find the disposable plasticky ones the best, because the butter seems to come out the side of the cloth ones leaving the icing sugar inside).
  4. Sprinkle on the decorations.
  5. Eat and enjoy!

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