With Christmas approaching, it’s time to put up the Christmas decorations and decorate the tree. And with these easy to make gingerbread biscuits you can have some Christmas tree decorations that look cute and taste great! It’s so easy nowadays to buy everything we need for Christmas at shops and online, but there’s a real feeling of joy to hand-make something too. We had a fun afternoon at home with our daughter and her friend making and decorating our edible Christmas decorations.

Equipment List:

• Oven and baking tray or two if you have them.
• Rolling pin
• Cookie cutters – such as stars, gingerbread man and other Christmas shapes. I bough a set for less than ￥1000 on Amazon.
• Rack for cooling
• Baking paper
• Piping bags – small disposbale plastic ones from the ￥100 shops are perfect or you can make your own from baking paper (see youtube)
• Food colouring – red and green is enough to get the Christmassy feel but you can use any you like or none at all and just have white icing.

Ingredients:

Method:

• Sift the flour, salt, baking soda and spices into a large bowl.
• Melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a small pan then allow to cool slightly. Combine with the flour. Beat the egg and add to the bowl. Mix well until all combined.
• Remove from the bowl, wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 30 mins.
• Pre-heat the oven to 200℃.
• Remove the dough from the fridge and allow to soften slightly. On a floured surface, roll out to about 3mm and cut out your stars and other shapes. Re-roll cookie dough remains together to use all of the dough.
• Place the biscuits on baking trays lined with baking paper. If you want to hang your biscuits on your Xmas tree, use a chopstick to make a hole in the biscuit. Bake in batches for 8-12 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool slightly on the trays before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

To Decorate:

• To make the royal icing, you can use a stand mixer or hand mixer on slow speed or you can mix by hand using a spatula.
• First sift your icing sugar into a bowl so there are no lumps. In another bowl, add the egg white and gradually add the icing sugar, mixing all the time. Continue until you have a paste. If it is too thick, add a little water and mix.
• Seperate the royal icing into separate bowls if you want to make different colours. Mix in the food colour until you get the colour you want. Carefully put the icing in the piping bags, tie a knot in the top of the bag and cut off just the tip of the piping bag. You only want a very a small hole for decorating the biscuits.
• Have fun decorating your Xmas biscuits!