Gingerbread Star Tree Food

GINGERBREAD TREES WITH LEMON ICING

Steps:

• Make cookies: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and granulated sugar on medium-high until creamy, 3 minutes. Add egg and beat to combine. Add molasses and beat to combine, scraping down bowl as needed. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture and beat until combined. Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate until firm, 1 hour (or up to 3 days).
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough to a 1/4-inch thickness. With a sharp knife or cookie cutter, cut dough into small 2-inch-wide triangles. Arrange triangles, 1 inch apart, on two parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until cookies are firm and golden at edges, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks.
• Make icing: In a small bowl, combine lemon juice and confectioners' sugar and whisk until smooth. Drizzle icing over cooled cookies and sprinkle with sanding sugar, if desired.

GINGERBREAD-COOKIE TREES

Steps:

• Put butter and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Mix in egg, then molasses, spices, baking soda, and salt. Reduce speed to low. Gradually mix in flour. Divide dough into quarters; shape into disks. Wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours (up to 2 days).
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Transfer one disk of dough at a time to a lightly floured work surface. Roll out to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out shapes using a set of 11 fluted round cookie cutters in graduated sizes (3/4 inch to 3 1/2 inches). You will use each cutter once for every tree. Using a 1 1/4-inch star cutter, cut out 10 stars. Arrange cookies by size on parchment-lined baking sheets. Refrigerate 20 minutes.
• Bake until firm, about 6 minutes for small cookies and 10 minutes for large. Let cool 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks, and let cool completely.
• Assemble trees: Put frosting into a pastry bag fitted with a small plain tip (such as Ateco #12). Pipe a dime-size dot of frosting in center of second-largest cookie; sandwich with largest cookie. Repeat in descending pairs with larger cookies on top to make 5 sandwiches. Pipe a scalloped 1/4-inch-thick border of frosting on top of larger cookie of largest sandwich. Top with the second-largest sandwich, larger cookie up, and repeat to make a tree of 5 sandwiches. Top with frosting, then smallest cookie, then more frosting and a star (standing upright). Cookie trees can be refrigerated up to 6 hours (they will soften). Dust with confectioners' sugar before serving.

GINGERBREAD TREES

Steps:

• Whisk the flour, gingerbread spice, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Beat the butter, brown sugar and molasses in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce the mixer speed to medium low and add the flour mixture in two batches, beating until just combined. Divide the dough between 2 large pieces of plastic wrap. Flatten into disks and wrap. Refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours or overnight.
• Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven; preheat to 350˚. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out 1 disk of dough on a lightly floured surface until about 3/8 inch thick. Cut out trees using 2- to 3-inch cutters. (If the dough becomes too sticky, refrigerate 15 minutes.) Arrange the cutouts 1 inch apart on the prepared pans.
• Bake, switching the pans halfway through, until the cookies are puffed and the edges are lightly set, 15 to 18 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes on the pans, then remove the cookies to racks to cool completely.
• Roll out the other disk of dough on a lightly floured surface and cut out more cookies. Once the baking sheets have cooled, arrange the cutouts on the pans, bake and let cool.
• Make the icing: Whisk the confectioners' sugar with the water until smooth and very thick. Transfer the icing to a resealable plastic bag, snip off a corner and pipe on the cookies; sprinkle with sanding sugar. Decorate with the sunflower seeds.

GINGERBREAD TREES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Beat together the softened butter with the caster sugar until creamy. Stir in bicarbonate of soda, golden syrup and the egg yolks. Sift in the plain flour and ground cinnamon and ground ginger then bring together with a wooden spoon. Shape into two balls, knead until the dough comes together, then chill for 30 mins. Roll out one ball at a time, to about 2 x £1 coin thickness. Stamp out trees with a 7cm cutter, then re-roll the trimmings. Lift dough onto greased baking sheets and bake for 10-12 mins until slightly risen and golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Will keep in an airtight container up to a week.

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.

GUILT-FREE GINGERBREAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in the lower third of oven. Spray a 9-inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Line the bottom of the pan with waxed paper, then spray the paper. Dust the entire pan with flour and shake out the excess.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, turbinado sugar, cinnamon, and salt; set aside.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together molasses, eggs, oil, and buttermilk.
• Dissolve baking soda in the cup of boiling water. Fold the baking soda and molasses mixtures into dry ingredients until combined. (Do not overmix.) Fold in the minced ginger.
• Scrape batter into the prepared baking pan; bake until cake is set around edges and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in the pan, then invert onto a cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature, dusted with confectioners' sugar.

PURE GOLD CHRISTMAS DRIP CAKE

Steps:

• First, make the sponges. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Oil and line the base and sides of three 20cm cake tins with baking parchment - if your cake tins are quite shallow, line the sides to a depth of at least 5cm.
• Mix the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, sugar, mixed spice and salt in a bowl.
• Whisk the buttermilk, oil, vanilla extract and 75ml water with the eggs until smooth. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk until well combined. Scoop about a third of the cake mixture into a tin. If using, mix the food colouring into the remaining batter and divide this between the other tins. Bake for 25-30 mins, or until the cakes have risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Cool in the tins for 10 mins, then turn out onto a wire rack, peel off the parchment and cool. The sponges will keep, wrapped tightly in cling film, for three days, or wrap and freeze for up to two months.
• To make the icing, beat the butter with half the icing sugar and vanilla until smooth. Add the remaining icing sugar and the cream cheese, and beat again until combined - don't overmix or the icing may become runny.
• Next, assemble the cake. Put one of the red sponges on a cake stand or cake board, sticking it down with a small blob of icing. Sandwich with the gold sponge, being generous with the icing. Top with more icing and the final red sponge, flat-side up. When assembled, use a palette knife to cover the entire cake with a thin layer of the icing, filling any gaps between sponges, but don't worry about completely covering the sponges at this stage. This is called a crumb coat and ensures that your final layer is crumb-free. Make space in the fridge and chill for 30 mins to allow the icing to firm up.
• Once the crumb coat is chilled, use the remaining icing to completely cover the cake. This is easiest if you pile the icing on top of the cake, then use a palette knife to ease it over the edge and down the sides. You can make it as smooth or as rough as you like. Chill for another 30 mins.
• Meanwhile, for the chocolate drip, melt the white chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of lightly simmering water or in the microwave in short bursts. Pour into a disposable piping bag and set aside to firm up a little - you want it to be pourable but not too runny.
• Remove the cake from the fridge. If you like, you can use an edible gold spray to cover the surface in a thin layer of shimmer. When the white chocolate is the correct consistency, snip off the end of the piping bag and pipe drizzles down the side of the cake. Fill in the top with the remaining chocolate. Top with our gingerbread star tree, or your choice of decorations.

STACKED CHRISTMAS TREE COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. Place cookie dough in a large bowl; let stand at room temperature to soften, 5-10 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Add flour; beat until blended., On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Using a floured 2-in. round cookie cutter, cut out 18 cookies. Repeat with 1-1/2-in. and 1-in. round cookie cutters. For remaining dough, use a floured 1/2-in. star-shaped cookie cutter to cut out 9 stars. , Sprinkle round cookies with colored sugar. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake until edges are light brown, 6-9 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely., For each Christmas tree, pipe frosting on top of a Rolo candy for a trunk; top with a 2-in. cookie. Pipe frosting on top and bottom of a Necco wafer; place in center of cookie. Top with another 2-in. cookie. Repeat layers with two 1-1/2-in. cookies and two 1-in. cookies, using Smarties between the smaller layers. , For stars, color a small amount of frosting yellow and pipe onto cookies; attach to the tops of trees using additional frosting. Thin remaining frosting with water; drizzle over edges. Decorate with nonpareils.