G is for Gingerbread Cookies

Bear and Bee love to visit the public library.  We try to go once a week and it's always fun to discover new books that are destined to become lasting favourites.  While Bear has certain characters and subject matter that she prefers, Bee loves to browse the display shelves to see what is available.  And I am always on the lookout for books that we might be able to get cooking ideas from.

Last week Bee and I were both happy to find 'Maisy Makes Gingerbread' by Lucy Cousins.  The book is written and illustrated in typical Maisy style with bright colours and one thing happening on each page.

Bee's favourite page of the book.

After reading about Maisy making gingerbread and sharing with her friends for afternoon tea, we decided to make some of our own gingerbread to have to afternoon tea.

Gingerbread Cookies
Adapted from a recipe in Fun Food by acp books
Makes about 20

Ingredients
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg yolk
2 cups plain flour
3 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup golden syrup

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line 2 baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
2. Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl, with an electric mixer, until pale and creamy.
3. Add egg yolk and mix well.
4. Sift flour, ginger and baking powder and add to bowl.
5. Heat syrup in a microwave for 20 seconds on high to make it runny.
6. Add syrup to bowl and and mix well to form a soft dough.
7. Tip dough onto a floured surface and knead gently.  Add a little more flour if the dough is too soft and sticky.
8. Roll dough out until 0.5cm thick approx.

9. Cut out shapes using floured cookie cutters.

10. Arrange on prepared baking trays and place in freezer for 5 minutes.  This will help stop the cookie puffing up too much.
11. Bake trays of cookies in oven for 10 minutes.

12. Cool on trays for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

These squeezy bottles are great for kids to use for icing.

13. When cookies have cooled, decorate with icing, sprinkles and small lollies.

For the icing, we beat 1 egg white with a whisk in a small bowl until frothy. Then we gradually added 1 1/2 cups of icing mixture, mixing well after each spoonful. Finally we stirred in a few drops of food colouring.