Christmas gingerbread decorations
These edible gingerbread biscuit decorations make great Christmas gifts and look lovely hanging on the tree.
Ingredients
- 50²µ/1¾´Ç³ú light muscovado sugar
- 50²µ/1¾´Ç³ú dark muscovado sugar
- 50²µ/1¾´Ç³ú golden syrup
- 150²µ/5½´Ç³ú butter, roughly chopped
- 1 medium free-range egg (at room temperature)
- 300²µ/10½´Ç³ú plain flour
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 1 tbsp ground mixed spice
To decorate
- 50²µ/1¾´Ç³ú hard sweets, such as glacier mints, coloured hard boiled sweets, buttermints, or hard toffees
- 20 strawberry laces
- 15g/½oz dark or milk chocolate chopped into small pieces
- 10 mini peanut butter cups or other mini chocolates
Method
Put both types of sugar, the golden syrup and the butter in a heavy-based saucepan. Set it over a medium heat and warm, stirring occasionally, until the butter has melted and the sugars have dissolved.
Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and leave to cool for about 5 minutes before beating in the egg. Sift over the flour and then the spices, one at a time, mixing gently after each addition, to make a soft dough.
Put the dough into a food bag, or wrap in cling film. Chill for several hours, preferably overnight, to firm up – this makes the dough easier to roll out.
Remove the dough from the fridge 15-30 minutes before rolling so it can soften slightly. Split the dough in half and roll out each piece between two sheets of baking parchment to the thickness of a £1 coin. If you think the dough is very sticky, lightly dust it and the parchment with a little flour.
Peel off the top sheet of parchment. Using the round cutters – either just one size or a variety – cut out discs. For each bauble you need to cut a 1.5 x 2cm strip of dough as well (it’s easiest to cut these from one long 2cm-wide piece of dough. Peel away the excess dough and re-roll the trimmings between fresh parchment to cut more discs. Repeat with the other piece of dough.
Lift up the edge of a disc and slip the end of a strip of dough under it. Press gently so the strip adheres to the underside of the disc – about 1cm of the strip should protrude from the bauble (this will be the hanging fixture).
Use the end of a thin paintbrush handle, straw or cocktail stick to make a hole near the top of the protruding strip (you can thread this with string once the biscuit is baked).
Repeat with the remaining discs and strips. Make sure there is a little space between the baubles, then lift them (on their sheets of parchment), on to baking trays and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4 while the biscuits are chilling.
Meanwhile, crush the boiled sweets into small pieces. Remove the baubles from the fridge and use the star cutter to stamp out a star shape from the centre of each. Carefully remove these stars and lay them on a separate parchment-lined baking tray.
Carefully put the crushed-up sweets inside the cut-out star shapes (don’t mix the sweets together). Bake the biscuits for 8-12 minutes or until the sweets have melted and the biscuits are deep golden-brown around the edges. Bake the cut-out stars separately for about 5 minutes. You can eat these stars as they are or give them away with the biscuit baubles as gifts.
While still warm, check the holes in the strips – if they have closed during baking, open them up again. Leave the biscuits to firm up on their trays until the melted sweets have set before transferring, on the parchment, to a wire rack to cool.
Thread a strawberry lace through the hole in each bauble, using the end of a cocktail stick or a needle to help feed it through. Tie into loops for hanging.
Melt the chocolate in a microwave or a heatproof bowl set over a pan of water, then leave to cool a little. Carefully cut the mini chocolates in half (you need only 15 halves but it’s worth having a few spare). Use the paintbrush/cocktail stick to dab melted chocolate onto the protruding strip at the top of each bauble and press on a mini chocolate half, which should just conceal the hole and cover the thread. Leave to set.