Iced gingerbread baubles look beautiful, smell fantastic and taste pretty good, too
Makes 20
175g dark muscovado sugar
85g golden syrup
100g butter
350g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
Ready-to-use royal icing
1 Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/ Gas 4. In a medium saucepan, melt the sugar, syrup and butter. Once melted, let it bubble for 1-2 mins, before removing from the heat. Leave to cool for around 10 mins.
2 Place the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices in a large bowl. Add the egg along with the cooled sugar and butter mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon to form a dough. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chillfor 30 mins. Meanwhile, line a couple of baking sheets with baking parchment.
3 Once the dough has chilled, allow it to come back to room temperature before rolling out to approximately 5mm thick on a lightly-floured surface. Cut out as many shapes as you can, then, using the end of a paper straw, make a small hole at the top of each biscuit for hanging. Continue rolling and cutting until all the dough has been used.
4 Carefully transfer the biscuits to the lined baking trays, leaving a little space between each one. Bake for 12 mins, or until golden. Remove from the oven and leave to firm before transferring to a cooling rack. If the hole that you made has closed up a little, use a skewer whilst the biscuit is still warm to open it up again.
5 When completely cool, decorate with royal icing using a piping bag and a small round nozzle. Once the icing has hardened, thread your choice of ribbon through the hole and hang on the tree.
Find the rest of the edible bauble recipes, including Stained Glass Orange and Cinnamon Biscuits and Butternut Squash and Peanut Butter Dog Biscuit tree decorations, in our December issue, starting on page 25.
And if you’re inspired to bake more gingerbread, you might like to read First Catch Your Gingerbread by food historian Sam Bilton, which is out this month.
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