I am so thrilled to now be able to make gingerbread people with my little man now. And this is really really REALLY easy to make. It will be a tradition in our home from this day on and will be a gift I give to friends, family and neighbours.
I have a long way to go perfecting my decorating but it doesn’t seem to matter how you decorate them, they still have so much charm.
YOU NEED
65 grams of coconut oil
1 ½ cups of brown sugar
5 cups of plain flour
90 grams of apple sauce
½ cup of molasses (I use blackstrap molasses. You can pick up molasses from any well stocked health food store)
½ cup of Bonsoy or almond milk
1 teaspoon of bi carb (baking soda)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon of ground cloves
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
3 teaspoons of ground ginger
1 teaspoon of ground cardamom
# I have also made it with 2 ground star anise and/or 1 vanilla pod scraped
YOU DO
Preheat your oven to 180%
Sift all the dry ingredients (except the sugar) together into a large bowl
Mix all the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and combine. Mix them together until you get a dough type texture. If the mixture is too wet just add more flour until you get the right texture.
Cut the “dough” into 4 and make squares, wrap each square in glad wrap and place in the fridge for an hour.
Remove and roll out one square at a time onto a well floured bench. Using cutters cut out whatever shapes you have chosen to make. Gently pull the scrap gingerbread away from your shape and using a spatula lift your shapes off the bench and place on trays lined with baking paper.
Cook your gingerbread for 8-10 minutes then remove from the oven and allow to cool. Once cooled decorate them as you wish. You can dust your gingerbread with icing sugar or pipe on it using dairy free white and/or dark chocolate, add sprinkles, decorate with veg lollies etc. This is the fun part so let rip with your creativity.
For rock hard icing…
YOU NEED
½ cup of icing sugar (also known as confectioners’ sugar)
1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar
1 teaspoon of agave (or maple syrup)
1/8 of a teaspoon of xanthium gum (any well stocked health food store will have this)
3 teaspoons of water
YOU DO
Mix all the ingredients together. It needs to a consistency that you can pipe with….so firm but not rock hard. If it’s a little too wet add some more icing sugar. If it’s a little too dry add a little more water.
Separate into small bowls and colour as you wish and the pipe onto gingerbread people using a small nozzle and piping bag.
Serves: Makes 40 medium sized gingerbread men.
Time: I haven’t timed it yet. The gingerbread is not time consuming but I was quite slow with the decorating.
Freeze: Hmm maybe it would be suitable to freeze the dough but I wouldn’t freeze the cooked gingerbread.
