About 10 years ago I realised I was allergic to ginger (you do not want to know how I found out). This makes it really hard for me to order food at Asian restaurants. “Then why did you choose to make gingerbread men for your first recipe on this blog?” you may ask. Well, it’s almost Christmas and gingerbread men are adorable so I thought this recipe would be appropriate. It was HARD not to eat the buttery dough while I was making it. I had to keep reminding myself it would make me sick. It has a wonderful fragrance thanks to the ginger, cinnamon and orange zest. Don’t worry, they didn’t go to waste, I brought them to work and people loved them. Step-by-step recipe below! (Keep scrolling for the full list of ingredients and method.) 

You don’t need a ton of ingredients: Brown sugar, softened butter, ginger powder, cinnamon powder, grated ginger, orange zest, golden syrup, plain flour, vanilla frosting and sprinkles (not pictured are the little silver balls I decided to use at the last minute). 

Place all ingredients except flour in a bowl.

Whisk until they are all creamed together. 

Add flour and combine (don’t over-mix the dough).

Remove dough and roll into a disc. Wrap and place in the fridge to rest and chill for about half an hour.

Remove from the fridge and roll out on a lightly floured surface, to a thickness of about 5 mm. 

Use a gingerbread man cutter to cut out the shapes, then place them on a greased/lined baking tray.

Bake for about 10 minutes, then rest on a cooling rack.

Once cool, use vanilla frosting to pipe faces and clothing on the men and add sprinkles or other decorations to your liking (recipe called for red ribbon which would have looked very cute, but I didn’t have any). Once the frosting has set, store the cookies in an airtight container. This recipe makes about 29 cookies; the book says 12 so I guess my gingerbread man cutter must be smaller. 

Gingerbread men make a lovely Christmas present, just put a few in a nice bag, tie it with a festive ribbon and you’re good to go!

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Gingerbread Men

From The Great New Zealand Baking Book, copyright © Josh Emett

Makes: About 12 | Prep time: 20 mins, plus chilling | Cook time: 10 mins | Skill level: 1 (easy)

Ingredients

• 115 g soft brown sugar
• 115 g butter
• 2 tsp ginger powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1 thumb-sized stem ginger, finely grated
• zest of 1 orange
• 30 g golden syrup
• 200 g plain flour

To decorate

• Pre-made vanilla frosting
• Red ribbon

Method

Pre-heat oven to 180°C.

Place all ingredients except flour in a mixer or food processor and whisk or blend until they are all creamed together.

Add flour and combine, then remove dough and roll into a disc. Wrap and place in the fridge to rest and chill for 20 minutes.

Remove from the fridge and cut into quarters, then roll each quarter out on a lightly floured surface, to a thickness of about 5 mm. Use gingerbread man cutters to cut out the shapes, placing them on greased/lined baking trays. Re-roll the leftover dough and repeat until all the dough is used.

Bake for about 10 minutes, then rest on the side on the trays until cool.

Put vanilla frosting in a piping bag with a 1 mm opening. Pipe faces and clothing on the men and then tie with red ribbon.

Where to buy the book:

Bookreps New Zealand

Whitcoulls

Paper Plus