Christmas gingerbread snowflakes

These snowflakes make a perfect place setting decoration at Christmas. You can decorate them as you please. If making them in Australia at Christmastime, it is good to make the mix the day before and refrigerate, as it is firmer and easier to roll.

CHRISTMAS GINGERBREAD SNOWFLAKES

Makes: 16–20 snowflakes
Prep: 10 mins
Cook: 30 mins (plus one hour resting time)

Ingredients

• 40g of unsalted butter
• ½ cup of caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon of golden syrup
• ½ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• ½ teaspoon of cream of tartar
• 1 cup of plain flour
• 2 teaspoons of ginger ground
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon ground
• ¼ teaspoon of ground cloves
• 1 pinch of salt (iodised)
• 1 tablespoon of water (extra may be required)
• 2 cups of pure icing sugar, sifted
• water as needed

Method

1. Using your electric mixer, cream the butter, sugar and golden syrup until well combined.
2. In a separate bowl, sift the bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar, plain flour, ginger, cinnamon, ground cloves and salt.
3. Add the dry ingredients into the bowl with the creamed butter and sugar, and combine on a low speed.
4. Add the water, a little at a time, and continue to mix on slow speed. You want the mixture to come together which won’t take long.
5. Lightly flour the bench top, and scrape the mixture onto the bench and knead lightly into a rectangular shape.
6. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and rest in the fridge for an hour.
7. Remove the dough from the fridge, and divide into four.
8. Preheat the oven to 160˚C fan forced. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
9. Take two pieces of baking paper, and using a rolling pin, roll each gingerbread piece between the sheets of baking paper to 5mm /¼” thickness. If it is overly sticky, you may need to add a little more flour.
10. Using a snowflake cutter (or preferred shape) and cut the rolled dough and place on prepared baking trays.
11. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes. If you want to hang them as decorations, remove the snowflakes from the oven at this point and using a skewer or chopstick, make a hold large enough for ribbon to be tied through.
12. Return to the oven for 2–5 minutes.
13. Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack for around 20 minutes.
14. Make some icing by mixing together the icing sugar and enough water to make into a thick gloss paste consistency (start with 2 teaspoons and add more as required). Place into a piping bag (or make your own with some greaseproof paper). Pipe on your preferred decoration – see photo for some ideas. It will set within a few minutes
15. Have yourself a very merry Christmas.

TIP
If you like your gingerbread nice and soft, then you will only need to cook them for about 5 minutes rather than 8–10.