Tala Gingerbread

This tasty non-spreading gingerbread recipe can be used for all of your festive gingerbread needs – whether you need to build a gingerbread house,  gingerbread shapes with a hole for threading with ribbon and hanging on the tree or just straightforward gingerbread biscuits. Elevate the cookies to the next level by texturing the dough with the Tala Christmas rolling pins before baking.

Ingredients

300g plain flour (plus extra for rolling out)

½ tsp salt

3 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinammon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

125g salted butter, cubed

50g soft dark brown sugar

50g soft light brown sugar

1½ tbs treacle

1 tbs golden syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbs water

Equipment

Small saucepan

Wooden spoon

Large mixing bowl

Whisk

Rolling pin

Christmas rolling pin

Christmas cutters

Baking tray

Baking parchment

Makes: depends on the size of the cutters. This recipe provides enough to make 10-12 Daddy gingerbread men from the Tala Christmas Gingerbread Family cutter set.

 Method

1. Place the sugars, syrup, treacle, spices and water in the saucepan, stir and heat gently until the mixture is nearly boiling.
2. Turn off the heat and add the vanilla. Stir, then add the butter and stir again until the mixture looks like a smooth glossy sauce.
3. Place the flour and salt in the mixing bowl and whisk to evenly disperse the salt and break up any clumps of flour.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir until you have a firm but yielding dough. Allow the dough to cool to room temperature.
5. Set the oven to 160 degrees Celsius fan (320 Fahrenheit).
6. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to a thickness of about 5mm. Then take the Christmas rolling pin and gently dust the surfce of it so that the indentations have a light coating of flour and will not stick to the dough.
7. Roll again, once, pressing downwards slightly (you will find the dough becomes thinner). Try not to push the rolling pin horizontally because it can cause the dough to tear and distorts the pattern.
8. Use Christmas cutters to punch out the shapes you require and place them slightly spaced out on a baking tray lined with baking parchment.
9. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes and allow them to cool on their tray. Store in a festive Tala tin until needed!