Gingerbread Kids Food

EASY GINGERBREAD COOKIES

Steps:

• Place all ingredients into a bowl and use your hand to mix together to form a dough. You'll want to be gentle but thorough to incorporate the butter into the dough. (If the dough seems a little too dry once you've incorporated the liquid and butter into the flour, you can add another tablespoon of milk but go easy on the liquid as more will make the dough stickier. It's ready when it holds together when you try to form it into a ball.)
• Make a flattened disc of dough. Optional: Wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for about 10 minutes. This will make the dough a little less sticky for rolling out, but it works okay to skip this step too if the kids don't want to wait.
• Preheat the oven to 370°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Roll the dough ¼-inch thick between two pieces of parchment or plastic wrap. (You can do it on a lightly floured surface, but I always find this easier. You'll want to use parchment paper if you skipped chilling the dough so it doesn't stick.)
• Cut out the dough with a cookie cutter and transfer to the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges. (Keep an eye on them after 8 minutes since the edges can brown fast. 9 minutes was perfect in my oven.)
• Remove from the oven, let cool on the baking sheet for a minute, and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Use a small butter knife to spread on the icing or pipe on as desired. If adding sprinkles or other decorations, add them to the iced cookies right away before it dries.

CHILDREN'S GINGERBREAD HOUSE

Steps:

• First cut out in thin cardboard: a side wall, 4 1/2 x 8 inches; an end wall, 4 1/2x5 inches; a triangular gable, 4 1/2x3x3 inches; and a roof rectangle, 4 1/2x9 inches. Tape the rectangular end wall piece to the triangular gable piece: match the long side of the triangle, 4 1/2 inches, to one of the 4 1/2 inch sides of the end wall.
• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in lemon zest, lemon juice, and molasses. Gradually beat in 2 eggs. Sift the flour, baking powder, and spices together; stir into creamed mixture. Wrap dough in parchment paper, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
• Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into 6 portions, 2 slightly larger than the others. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the 4 smaller pieces to approximately the size of the side wall and the end wall with gable templates; cut out two of each. Roll out remaining dough, and cut into two rectangular roof pieces. Transfer gingerbread onto greased baking trays.
• In a preheated 375 degree F (190 degrees C) oven, bake gingerbread for 10 minutes, or until crisp. When removing from the oven, leave the gingerbread on the baking trays for a few minutes to set, then transfer to wire racks. Leave out overnight to harden.
• In a large bowl, lightly whisk 2 egg whites. Gradually beat in approximately 5 cups confectioners' sugar. The icing should be smooth and stand in firm peaks. Spread or pipe a 9 inch line of icing onto a cake board, and press in one of the side walls so that it sticks firmly and stands upright. If necessary, spread or pipe a little extra icing along either side to help support it. Take an end wall and ice both the side edges. Spread or pipe a line of icing on the board at a right angle to the first wall, and press the end wall into position. Repeat this process with the other two walls until they are all in position. Leave the walls to harden together for at least two hours before putting on the roof. Spread or pipe a thick layer of icing on top of all the walls, and fix the roof pieces in position; the roof should overlap the walls to make the eaves. Pipe or spread a little icing along the crest of the roof to hold the two pieces firmly together. Leave overnight to set firmly.
• When ready to decorate, make the remaining icing. In a large bowl, lightly whisk 4 egg whites, and mix in remaining confectioners' sugar as before. Use this to make snow on the roof, and to stick various candies for decoration. Finish with a fine dusting of sifted confectioners' sugar.

FAVORITE OLD FASHIONED GINGERBREAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9-inch square pan.
• In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the egg, and mix in the molasses.
• In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Blend into the creamed mixture. Stir in the hot water. Pour into the prepared pan.
• Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan before serving.

CHOCOLATE-COVERED GINGERBREAD KIDS

Steps:

• Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 325°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk first 7 ingredients in large bowl to blend. Stir brown sugar, butter, and molasses in medium saucepan over low heat until melted. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Let cool 10 minutes. Whisk egg in medium bowl to blend. Gradually whisk molasses mixture into egg. Using electric mixer, gradually beat molasses mixture into flour mixture until just blended.
• Roll dough out on lightly floured surface to 12x10-inch rectangle. Cut out gingerbread with cookie cutters. Transfer to baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Gather scraps and roll out on lightly floured surface; cut out additional cookies. Repeat until all dough is used.
• Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until puffed and tops are firm, about 10 minutes. Cool on sheets 5 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool completely.
• Place rack over rimmed baking sheet. Stir chocolate and oil in top of double boiler set over barely simmering water until melted. Holding bottom of 1 cookie, dip top into chocolate, allowing excess to drip off. Transfer cookies, chocolate-side up, to prepared rack. Repeat with remaining cookies and chocolate. Decorate cookies with candies or ginger. Chill cookies until chocolate is set, about 30 minutes. (Cookies can be made 3 days ahead. Store in single layer in airtight container in refrigerator.) Let cookies stand at room temperature 15 minutes before serving.

GINGERBREAD KIDS

Steps:

• In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add egg; mix well. Beat in molasses, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, baking soda, and salt. On low speed, add flour a cup at a time, mixing until incorporated.
• Divide dough into quarters; shape into disks, and wrap into plastic. Refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees with racks in top and bottom third. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out a dough disk to 1/8 inch thick. Cut out cookies, rolling out any scraps and additional disks as needed until you have about 20 kids. Transferto parchment-paper-lined baking sheets, leaving 1 inch between cookies. With remaining dough, cut out additional kids to make clothes, jewelry, and hair as desired. Dress cookies, and refrigerate 20 minutes.
• Bake cookies, two sheets at a time, 7 minutes; rotate pans top to bottom and front to back, and continue baking until cookies are firm when touched, about 6 to 8 minutes more. Let cool on baking sheets 5 minutes. Transfer to wire racks; let cool completely. Decorate cookies as desired.

ULTIMATE EASY GINGERBREAD

Steps:

• Heat the butter, syrup and sugar together in a small pan until melted, stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool slightly.
• Mix together the bicarb, ginger, cinnamon and flour in a large bowl. Pour in the buttery syrup mixture and stir to combine, then use your hands to bring together to form a dough. The dough will be soft at this point, but it'll firm up in the fridge.
• Put the dough on a sheet of baking parchment, shape into a rectangle, and lay another sheet of parchment on top of it. Roll the dough out to a thickness of ½cm. Transfer to a baking sheet to keep it flat, leaving the parchment in place, then chill in the fridge for 1 hr.
• Heat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5 and line a large baking sheet with more baking parchment. Remove the dough from the fridge and cut out shapes using a cookie cutter. We used 9cm stars, but you can choose any shape. We also made some with smaller stars cut out of the centre to thread ribbon through and hang from a Christmas tree.
• Place the shapes, spread apart, on the lined baking sheet, and bake for 10-12 mins. (Depending on the size of the cutters you use, they might need a few minutes more or less cooking in the oven). Leave to cool completely on the baking sheet.
• Meanwhile, mix the icing sugar with 1-2 tbsp water - you want to create a consistency that's thick and pipeable, and not too thin or it will run. Decorate the cooled biscuits with the icing using a piping bag with a thin nozzle. Find out how to make a piping bag.