This is Beverley's famous gingerbread biscuit recipe, if you or your children have been on the Posh Icing or Edible Christmas Present workshops this the recipe for the biscuits you will have iced and decorated. This is also the recipe we use at our Gingerbread House Workshops but not the one for our Designer Gingerbread Kits as that is a very well kept secret.

Ingredients: for 15-20 Biscuits

350g Plain Flour

2 teaspoons Ground Ginger

1 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda

100g butter

175g Soft Brown Sugar

1 Egg

4 Tablespoons Golden Syrup

Ingredients: for icing

4-5 Tablespoons Icing Sugar

Sprinkles, Silver Balls, Hundreds and thousands

Thin (2 mm wide) ribbon to hang the biscuits on the Christmas Tree

How to make Gingerbread Biscuits ... WASH YOUR HANDS

1.            Ask an adult to turn the oven onto 190^oC/Gas Mark 5. (Aga Roasting Oven - shelf on oven floor).  Weigh out the flour and butter.  Place these into the mixing bowl, measure out the ginger and bicarbonate of soda and add to the bowl.

2.            Rub the butter into the flour with your fingers until it is like fine breadcrumbs.

3.            Break the egg into the small bowl, scooping out any bits of eggshell.  Add the syrup to the egg and beat well with the fork.  Pour into the mixing bowl along with the sugar.

4.            Mix the flour and egg mixture together using the tablespoon until it forms a dough. You may need an adult to help.

5.            Sprinkle a little flour onto a clean work surface, put the dough onto it.

6.            ‘Knead’ the dough - squeeze the dough together, turning it and twisting it until it becomes smooth.  If the dough sticks to the surface sprinkle a little more flour onto it.  Use a little butter and grease the baking tray.

7.            When the dough is smooth, sprinkle a little more flour onto the surface, split the dough into two balls and roll out one ball of the dough until it is the thickness of a pencil, approximately 5 mm. 

8.            Cut out lots of biscuits with the cookie cutters and carefully place each biscuit onto the greased baking tray using the spatula. If you want to hang the gingerbread on the Christmas Tree ask an adult to put a hole in the top of each biscuit using a skewer.  Repeat with the second ball of dough.

9.            Ask an adult to place the biscuits in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until they are golden brown.  Ask an adult to remove them and re-pierce the hole in the top and let them cool on the tray for 15 minutes, then transfer them to the wire rack

10.            When the biscuits are cold you can decorate them with icing and sprinkles and carefully thread lengths of ribbon through the small hole in the top and tie with a bow or knot ready to hang on the Christmas Tree, or give them to friends and family as presents.