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Ruchik Randhap

Food & Memories of Mangalore

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December 17, 2013

Gingerbread Men

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On one of my recent shopping escapades I came across a very nice book on Christmas recipes. It had every recipe that one could possibly want to try during the festive season. While I couldn’t decide which one I should try out first, this particular recipe caught my eye. I had only heard about gingerbread men. I used to be a huge fan of Enid Blyton’s novels during my childhood and that lady can definitely make one salivate with her description of food. Cupcakes, muffins, scones and such to be eaten along with high tea. Pretty much the stuff that made up for a majority of her stories. I loved reading her books and they always made me hungry so I’d always run to my mum and ask her to whip me something quickly to satiate the hunger pangs. Well, since my mum never baked she made Indian equivalents of the goodies. Pancakes a.k.a dosa would appear on a plate in front of me and I would lavishly pour honey or ghee and sugar over it and wallop it down.
When i was little I always thought that gingerbread tasted like ginger flavoured bread and that idea didn’t appeal to me much. I mean who likes fresh and spicy grated ginger on a slice of bread? Not me! It was only much later that I got to know about the existence of dried ginger in its powdered form used to flavour not only hot beverages like tea but also cakes and other baked goodies. We Indians also use powdered ginger as a medicine. When taken with honey it can cure a bad throat. However I was very apprehensive to try out so much ginger powder in a cake.
My family is not particularly fond of foods that reek of spice and imagine eating a cake that tastes heavily of ginger? Anyway, I decided that I was going to make it after one of my readers requested for a fool proof recipe. Well, unless I gave it a shot I would not be able to help her. Moreover this was my first real attempt at making biscuits/cookies. I am pretty hesitant when it comes to embarking on new journey in the culinary world. I love my comfort zone too much. Maybe that explains why I don’t have a bread recipe on my blog yet. And no cookie recipe either. But there’s always a first time.
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Did I also mention that I am nervous about decoration too? I feel I totally suck at decorating cakes and such except for maybe slather some ganache sloppily on a cake. I can’t hold a piping bag in my hand without muttering to myself about why I jumped into this in the first place. But then yesterday as I piped this simple icing onto the men I realised what a difficult yet fulfilling job it was. Baking is a lot more easier than decorating. Everyone knows that. My respect for professional cake decorators has just grown by leaps and bounds.
I am so glad that I took the plunge into cookie baking at home. Never will I buy the store bought ones. Making biscuits/cookies at home is so easy and quick that I finished the whole job within 20 mins (to mix, knead, roll, punch out shapes, bake) and a couple of hours for the icing to cool. These men may not be perfect (no men are!) and one could use any cookie cutter to cut out shapes. If you don’t have any Christmassy cookie cutters just use the lids of small round steel boxes to get your perfectly round shapes. By the way, the ginger is not over powering at all. Delicately spicy in a way and aromatic too. I loved this experience, I hope you do too!
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Gingerbread Men

Quick & easy cookies for your goodie platter. A super fun project to do with your kids!
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Course: Cookies
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes
Total Time: 22 minutes
Author: Shireen Sequeira @ www.ruchikrandhap.com

Ingredients

  • 350 grams / 12 oz plain flour plus extra for dusting
  • 1 tablespoon ginger powder
  • 1 teaspoon soda bi carb baking soda
  • 100 grams / 3-1/2 oz butter at room temperature
  • 175 grams/6 oz soft brown sugar
  • 1 egg beaten
  • 4 tablespoon golden syrup * see note#1
  • pinch of salt

To decorate:

  • 115 grams/ 4 oz icing sugar
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/350F. Depending on the size of your cookie cutters you may need 2-3 baking sheets. Grease them or line with baking parchment.
  • Sift the flour, baking soda, pinch of salt and ginger a couple of times into bowl. Add the butter and rub into the flour until the mixture resembles sand. Stir in the brown sugar.
  • In a bowl beat the egg lightly and add the golden syrup to it and mix. Pour this mixture into the flour mixture and gently knead into a ball. *see note#2
  • On a lightly floured and clean working surface roll out the dough into 1/4 inch thickness and punch out ginger bread man shapes. Use a spatula to transfer the shapes onto the prepared baking sheets and bake for about 10-12 minutes or till the cookies turn golden brown. Remove from the oven and gently transfer onto a cooling rack until completely cooled.
  • Prepare the icing by mixing the icing sugar with the lemon juice until thick & paste like. The icing should not be too runny as it will spread out on the cookie. Neither should it be too thick or dry as it will fall off the cookie without setting. Dust a little extra icing sugar or sprinkle extra drops of lemon juice until the right consistency is achieved. Transfer into a piping bag with a desired nozzle.
  • Once the cookies have been completely cooled decorate as desired and transfer back on the rack for a few hours until the icing has set & hardened. Store in an airtight container.

Notes

I substituted golden syrup with corn syrup which worked fine in my opinion. While I searched for substitutes on the net I found suggestions to substitute golden syrup with melted jaggery syrup. I have not tried this but I guess you could try melting regular jaggery (not palm jaggery which is black and available in disc form) on slow fire and add a few drops of water to achieve a thick syrup like consistency. 2. While kneading the dough you may feel that the mixture is extremely dry and crumbly and that the moisture is very less however do not add any extra liquid like water or butter or milk as you will end up with a mess. The dough requires kneading for at least 5-7 minutes during which you will get a nice smooth round ball of dough with a clay like texture

Disclaimer

The nutritional values are only indicative.

Tried this recipe?Please leave a comment & rate the recipe below or share a photo on Instagram and tag me @ruchikrandhap

 

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Filed Under: All Posts, Bakes, Christmas, Cookies, Tarts & Bars, Festive Cooking Tagged With: Baked Goodies, Biscuits, Christmas Baking, Christmas Recipes, Cookies, Gingerbread Men

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Comments

  1. sv says

    December 17, 2013 at 2:03 pm

    I've been waiting to try this one, but never came across a suitable recipe. Thanks a lot!

    Reply
  2. Hamaree Rasoi says

    December 18, 2013 at 4:23 pm

    Cute looking gingerbread men.
    Deepa

    Reply
  3. Catherine says

    November 28, 2021 at 6:35 pm

    Hi Shireen, how many cookies would I get from the recipe quantity?

    Reply
    • Shireen Sequeira says

      January 5, 2022 at 10:01 am

      Hi Catherine,

      Sorry, I have not mentioned that. Will update the recipe when I try it out next time. As far as I recall you should get at least 20 cookies with this recipe

      Reply

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I am Shireen Sequeira a Mangalorean living in Dubai. I love trying out new recipes and giving them a twist of my own. However, I do try my best to preserve the authenticity of traditional Mangalorean recipes. Know More...

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