I've spent the day baking and cleaning. From time-to-time, I get into these cleaning moods. This happens around three times every fortnight. This is when I go cleaning bonkers. I clean under every nook and cranny. It is brilliant. Getting the house all clean and sparkling! There is nothing so therapeutic as cleaning... well apart from baking...
So I made gingerbread today. I am practicing for Christmas. To me, you need to think of these things way in advance. I need to find the right recipe, meaning trying out loads and finding the one I love! I have found that one and it is beautiful!
I love the smell of gingerbread baking away in the house. It is all full of spice and warming aromas. Hmmm! I felt like a piece of gingerbread myself. I spilled a whole lot of cinnamon over myself. That along with the ginger flying round the kitchen, well you can imagine! This was magical! All full of happiness and Christmasy scents!
This is a Mary Berry recipe and it is just lovely. The dough is this lovely pale colour and is a soft and pliable texture and consistency. I was and am still in love with this dough.
The ingredients you'll need, make enough for 2 small gingerbread houses and a whole bunch of biscuits as well. I had, what I call a 'Bake Off' moment, in which my little house, constructed with love and icing, with a foundation built on hope, collapsed! Dead! No more! It was morose and it made me feel so sad. I was really proud of this little house until it went SPLAT!
I then made another batch and it was much better. Don't misunderstand, this isn't your normal bread house... It is beautiful and unique to me, but I feel now after making my own, the ones you buy in the shop look a lot different. Not, I'm making a rock and the shop bought looks like a rock, and mine looks like a leaf different. But homemade and in a good way I feel.
I have come to the conclusion, that these are shop bought, therefore they are most likely in my opinion made using machines and big mass manufacturing equipment and maybe they use edible glue. But with mine, there is just me and these tools I call my freakishly small hands. I have small hands. I use royal icing and that hardens yes, but it needs to set for a while, so here I am, looking like i'm posing for an oil portrait, holding this little house together, piece-by-piece. Willing it not to slide and fall.
I've made this recipe my own, by changing the quantities here and there to suit my taste preferences.
The ingredients you'll need are;
- 375g Butter, the recipe said unsalted, but I didn't use that. A) I didn't have any. B) I really don't see the difference. C) It is more expensive.
- 300g Dark Muscovado Sugar
- 900g Plain Flour
- 1 tbsp Baking Soda. It said 1 tbsp, I used 1 tsp.
- 2 tbsp of Ground Ginger, I used 4. I like my gingerbread, like my coffee cake, STRONG.
As you can see, I've changed this recipe a lot, well more than I normally would.
The method to make these are quite simple;
- Preheat the oven to 170 C in a Fan Assisted oven.
- Bung the butter and sugar into a mixer and whisk on a high speed until fluffy, light and creamed together.
- Pop the molasses into the butter/ sugar mix and whisk until fully combined.
- Put the plain flour, baking soda and ginger into one bowl and mix together until combined. Gradually put this into the butter/sugar and molasses mix, spoon-by-spoon.
- Whisk all of this together until it is light and fluffy looking. The mixture should be combined fully and form a dough like texture.
- Pop this out onto a counter top and knead until the mix comes together in a smooth dough. Wrap this in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.
- Take out of the fridge and roll out to the thickness of a pound coin.
- Cut out whatever shape you like, this could be bells, circles, trees or gingerbread men.
- Place into a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges of the gingerbread are just starting to brown.
To make the royal icing;
- 3 Egg whites
- 675g Icing Sugar
- 2 tbsp Lemon Juice
- Pop the egg whites into the bowl, attached to the whisker and whisk until thick and sturdy.
- Gradually add in the icing sugar into the egg whites until it is all in and fully combined. The egg whites will go from a translucent colour to a thick, white, glossy opaque colour. You shouldn't be able to see through the icing when done.
- Add a little of the lemon juice to loosen the icing a little.
- Pipe onto the gingerbread and connect the pieces.
This is a fun process and takes a little time as you need to let it set and harden.
And that is the gingerbread done! Complete! Finished!
Time to eat!
If you'd like some gingerbread for an order, just get in contact and I would love to cater for that need! My Facebook Page, is CVL Bakes.
Thanks and have a lovely evening!
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