Nothing gets the tastebuds going like a warm slice of home-cooked gingerbread. The baked treat offers a comfortingly rich blend of sweet and spicy notes, which simply scream out Christmas! And making your own gingerbread men has long been a festive and fun experience which can really get the family in the mood for the big day.
So why not have a go at baking your own? Below, TikTok content creator kimberleycooks has shared a deliciously simple recipe that's high on taste - and low on effort. Put the butter and brown sugar in a bowl and whisk until buttery smooth. Next add in half a cup of golden syrup and the egg yolk only, and mix together.
Sieve in two and a half cups of plain flour and add one teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda, the teaspoon of mixed spice and tablespoon of ground ginger. Give it all a great mix. Pop it out of the bowl, wrap in clingfilm, and put it in the fridge for half an hour.
Use a rolling pin to gently ease the mix into a flat surface as thick as you'd like the gingerbread mean to be. Then using a cutter, mark out all the gingerbread men. Finally, pop in the oven on 180C for ten minutes. Whisk an egg white with a cup of icing sugar to make the icing, then pipe the glossy mixture onto your gingerbread chaps - and there you have it, dead simple, right?.
"The popularity of gingerbread during the holidays can, at least in part, be attributed to the belief that spices heated you up in the winter," says dessert historian Michael Krondl. But did you ever wonder where the gingerbread men tradition originated?.
