While I'm not religious, my family and I have always celebrated Christmas as a time to be together, share food, and give love and appreciation. Part of the fun is of course within the preparation and cooking stages which gives you plenty of time to bond, giggle and make delicious goodies.
Cutting gingerbread, baked cookies pre-icing, whisking the icing and mixing colours into icing
The plan was originally to make an army of gingerbread men but my man-shaped cookie cutter was missing so I decided to use my set of star biscuit cutters to make a galaxy of colourful gingerbread cookies instead!
This recipe is really simple and the cookies are fragrant with ground ginger; the amount of which can be adjusted to suit your own taste. Plus with a baking time of only 10 minutes, you'll have your first batch of gingerbread, ready to be decorated in no time!
Let your imagination run wild, get the kids involved, mix different colours of the rainbow or experiment with hundred and thousands, cachous or raisins.
Iced gingerbread stars
Colourful gingerbread stars
Gingerbread Stars
Makes about 12 stars
Gingerbread
125g butterIcing
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg yolk
2½ cups plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarb
3 teaspoons ground ginger
1½ tablespoons golden syrup
1½ cups pure icing sugar
1 egg white
4 drops lemon juice
Food colouring
- Cream the butter and sugar
- Add egg yolk and mix in remaining gingerbread ingredients
- Combine and kneed until dough forms. Roll out dough and cut out shapes using cookie cutters or knife. Continue to remove excess dough for re-use
- Bake for 10 minutes in a moderate oven (180C)
- Remove immediately and place on a cooling tray
- Whisk the egg white, then gradually add the icing sugar. Ensure that there are no lumps, then add lemon juice and food colouring
- Decorate as you like
I quadtripled the quantities and as you can see, my dining table was truly a galaxy of gingerbread stars! Yum!
P.S. Merry Christmas! Thank you, my dear readers, for your support and words of inspiration throughout this year. I hope you all enjoy this holiday period both joyfully and healthily! x
A galaxy of gingerbread star cookies
I'm making mine on xmas day! I love all the different colours and designs.
ooo, that'll be good! i love how the freshly baked aroma fills the house. have fun and merry xmas! ;)
They look so beautiful! Merry Xmas
thank you! hope you have a merry xmas too.
I'm not religious either but I do love any chance to celebrate with food and company! They look great-lovely and colourful :)
Thanks - I couldn't agree with you more. It's brilliant this time of the year. there's Christmas, then new year, then Chinese new year...
Oooo nice
Did your icing go hard? Check out my gingerbread people ... my icing stayed semi soft and sticky though :(
Yup the icing goes hard. Perhaps your egg whites weren't whisked enough?
Haha...love the ones with the smiley faces!
Thanks lovely! I would have decorated them with different facial emotions but doing 50+ cookies in one night is tiring :-\
Happy Holidays Jen - to you and your family! Your cookies are very cute!
Thanks Trissa - hope you had a fantastic start to the new year! x
Have a great Christmas, Jen. It's been a big year for your, hope 2010 is even better!
Thanks Belle. Hope you have an awesome 2010 too! x
Jen!!!!!!!! how are you comrade?
Hope you are deliciously well :P Hey Happy New Year. Can I say your blog inspired me to get mine up again so here goes. Hey we are def catchin up this year ok! p.s I've added you to my 'must C this week' on my blog and in my friends list :P cherrio kiddo!
Doyle! Hope you've been doing fab too!! I still think you have one of the best jobs in the world - love that you share your adventures on your blog ;)
Let me know when you're back in Sydney! Don't think I'll have a chance to travel to Dubai this year, but i'll let you know if a trip does come up! I'll make sure you're working on the same flight! Happy 2010! xx
I love the colours you've used!
Thanks Fiona! That was my favourite part - mixing colours and decorating! I ended up with about 8 different colours but it's such a challenge decorating so many cookies before the icing dries up.