Gingerbread star cookies recipe

My second Christmas inspired blogpost for 2013! Was uber happy with the results as I was pretty nervous, having never made gingerbread biscuits before nor do I have them every Christmas. The last time I tasted one was around 2006 and I loved every bite.

A good gingerbread biscuit has to have the right balance of spices, sweetness and chewiness. An incorrect measurement of any of these components can retard the biscuit batter and can be a painful process (do not like to throw away failed attempts but at the same time, I can't afford to put my health at risk!).

Have obtained this recipe from Gourmet Traveller and I have tweaked the amount of incorporated spices a bit to suite my taste. Enjoy baking and consuming this fun and festive biscuit. Ps, icing can be a pair especially when you have to work really fast otherwise it may dry out:(

Ingredients:
350g plain flour
95g light brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tbsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
3/4 tsp nutmeg
110g butter
90g golden syrup
1 egg

Cream the butter and sugar together until it appears light and fluffy before incorporating the egg into the mixture. Slowly add in the golden syrup until the mixture looks evenly mixed. Sift the dry ingredients together before mixing in the wet ingredients.

Cling wrap the dough and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. The ideal dough has to be slightly moist and it can be a bit messy to handle especially during summer so make sure it is about 40% solidified before rolling out. You are aiming for approximately 0.8cm thickness in the rolled out biscuit dough. It will burn quickly if it's too thin.

Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes or until it appears to have browned well but still a bit soft. The trick to baking cookies is that they will continue to cook despite taking them out of the oven. Being under is a lot better than being overbaked!

I rolled mine out a little too thin which was disappointing as it made it difficult to shape. I did not have various star shaped cookie cutters so I just estimated the size of each cookie. A bit messy and would highly recommend getting cutters if you can afford it!

The edges were not even:(

Spot the star with the crisp edge!

Royal icing ingredients:
1 egg white
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
2.5 cups icing sugar

Whip the egg white with the cream of tartar until stiff peaks appear. Fold the icing in and add your colouring (if you intend on using them). Try to achieve a stiff but yet easily spreadable icing mixture if you can. Quickly fill your piping bags and let the fun begin!

Do try this recipe out, it makes a perfect gift as well as a treat for guests. Got to admit that each biscuit looks pretty meh individually (I'm horrible at icing, trust me!) but once I put them together, I think their unique characteristics worked brilliantly. Made it an interesting baked piece to look at:)