Gingerbread cookies

My husband Sam ate nearly the entire batch of these cookies.

How did this happen? I made them for a Christmas in July party. We unfortunately didn't make it to the party. So Sam ate them. 

I wanted to dress them up a little so I covered some with marshmallow fondant. For the rest, I added simple details with royal icing.

Gingerbread

2 1/2 cups plain flour
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
3 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons mixed spice
140g unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup golden syrup
1 large egg yolk

Royal icing

1 tablespoon meringue powder (I use pavlova magic)
1 1/3 cups confectioners' sugar
2-4 tablespoons warm water (more if needed) 

Vinegar and paper towel*

Sift flour, salt, bicarb, ginger and mixed spice into a large bowl and set aside.

Use a mixer to beat the butter and sugar until lovely and creamy, scraping down the the sides if necessary. Add the egg yolk and the golden syrup and mix until well combined. With the mixer on a very low speed, slowly add the flour mixture. Mix until all the flour mixture is just incorporated - you don't want to over mix it.

Remove the dough from the mixer and form into two balls. Roll each out to approx 5 mm thick. The easiest way to do this is between two pieces of baking paper. 

Because the dough is soft (the baked cookies have a wonderful texture as a result), place it in the fridge for 30 to 45 minutes to firm up. If you are super impatient, place in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes. Cut out shapes, then pop them back into the fridge/freezer to firm up again. This will ensure they hold their shape while baking. You can re-roll off cuts. 

Preheat the over to 160 degrees Celsius fan-forced. Place your cookies on a baking sheet about 2 cms apart. Cooking time really depends on the size of your cookies - mine were all quite small, about 5-6 cm wide. They took about 6 minutes to bake. You want the edges to be a light golden brown colour. Remember that they will continue to bake for a bit once removed from the oven and will firm up as they cool.

To make the icing, place all ingredients in a very clean mixer (see note). Beat on low for approx 7 to 10 minutes, until soft peaks form. Alternatively,it will take 10 to 12 minutes using a hand-held mixer at high speed.

Gingerbread men recipe from Exclusively Food (LOVE this site). Royal icing recipe from Wilton.

Notes

*For the icing, it is so important that the mixer and utensils you use are grease free. If there is residual grease on anything then the icing won't reach the right consistency. Easiest thing to do is just to wipe everything down with a little vinegar using a paper towel.

The royal icing recipe makes a relatively small batch - approx one cup. Multiply by three if you need a lot (just watch that you don't add too much water).

You probably don't need to use royal icing if just doing simple detailing. A simpler icing should be fine.