Recipe for Gingerbread with a Lemony Twist

 “But gingerbread is for Christmas?” You say. I know! And I wish I could pull the it’s-Christmas-in-July card but it’s still only May!

Let’s be real here, cookies are delicious regardless of the time of year, and the lemon icing gives them a fresh twist that makes you forget about Christmas.

My Favourite Recipe 

For the ginger cookies

125g butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup, firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup golden syrup

1 egg yolk

2 1/2 cups plain flour

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

For the lemon icing

1 ½ cups icing sugar

Juice of half a lemon (varies depending on how juicy your lemon is)

 1. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the golden syrup and egg yolk and beat until combined. Stir in the flour, ginger, mixed spice, vanilla and bicarbonate of soda and mix till smooth then smoosh all the dough into a big ball. Cover with plastic wrap and leave it in the fridge for 15 minutes. You can be generous with the spices for more flavoursome cookies. Also consider adding cinnamon or ground cloves. 

(Yes our spices are ALMOST in alphabetical order, super handy!) 

 2. While you are waiting for the dough to rest, preheat the oven to 180* and prepare some cookie trays with baking paper. Also flour your bench top ready to roll out the dough. 

3. Take a hunk of dough about the size of your fist out of the fridge. Put this on your floured bench top, flatten then roll out till it’s about half a centimetre thick. Use your favourite cookie cutters and separate them. Keep doing this until all the dough is rolled and cut and bake in the oven for 8 minutes. If your oven is like mine and gets hotter on one side than the other, rotate the tray after 4 minutes to make sure they bake evenly (unfortunately I didn’t think about this till afterwards and on one side of the tray mine got a bit burnt).

4. For the lemon icing, whisk the lemon and icing sugar together using a fork, it should be a bit sloppy (similar consistency to melted chocolate). Add extra sugar or juice accordingly


5. Once the cookies have cooled, dip the tops into the bowl of your runny icing and spread it around with a knife. Put them back on the tray and back into the oven that is off but still a bit warm, leave the door ajar and leave them there for 2 minutes. This helps the icing set. You can then remove the excess icing to neaten them up a bit with a knife or your fingers. 

6. EAT THEM! (or share them…)

  

Recipe adapted from http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/9761/gingerbread+men