The ultimate Christmas Ginger Biscuit recipe

 

Ginger Biscuit. A very alien concept for a french lady. But when you tell me you can build a house with biscuits, I am all over it!

When I am not familiar with a concept or recipe, I have learnt that research is key! We are so lucky that there are plenty of amazing pieces of advise online, and I would totally recommend to do the same. I love to learn about other people and add my general knowledge of baking and cooking to make it work.

For this recipe, I have combined my knowledge of making biscuits – apparently I make good biscuits! – and some advises from mostly American bloggers. A lot of people add bicarbonate of soda or baking powder, to give it a more cakey consistency. I personally prefer the dryer version and it is also much sturdier for any type of constructions.

I was invited to run a workshop at the amazing Soho Farm House this month, I have shared some pictures of the weekend for you here!

I have also shared some of my top tip for your ginger bread house to stand!

 

 

Before you start, top tips from me to you:

• Try to keep your cut pieces in the fridge for at least 30min before baking – it will help them to keep their shape when cooking
• Find a good template online ( Just search google ): I personally make mine very easily from cardboard – so I can make it to the size I exactly want! You will need 2* pieces for the roof, 2* pieces for the sides and 1 entrance and 1 back of the house.
• Use a cake board to support your house: much sturdier than using ginger bread biscuit.
• Make your royal icing very stiff for the construction: I am talking buttercream thick, that will be so much easier to build your house!
• Use granulated sugar or desiccated coconut to give it the snow effect.
• Don’t hesitate to overcook your ginger bread biscuit pieces: it is better to cook it a little too much than under bake your biscuit or they will go soggy.
• Use a kebab wood stick to make holes in your biscuits.

 

Photo by Jennifer Moyes

 

Quantity: 1 medium ginger bread house + 20 ginger cookies

Utensils: Electric stand mixer, piping bag, baking trays

Difficulty:

Ingredients

Ginger Biscuits

• 400g of dark muscovado sugar
• 200g of granulated sugar
• 250g of salted butter at room temperature
• 2 tbsp of golden syrup
• 2 tbsp of black Treacle
• 3 eggs
• 2 tbsp of ground ginger
• 1 tbsp of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of nutmeg
• 600g of plain flour

Royal Icing

• 2 egg whites
• 1 tsp of cream of tartar
• 500g of icing sugar

Method

1* Make the biscuit dough: In the bowl of an electric mixer, add the sugars and the butter and beat for 4 min. Then add the eggs one by one. When everything is combined, add the golden syrup and treacle and mix well. Finish by adding the flour and the ground ginger and cinnamon and nutmeg. The dough will be super stiff, but that is good!

2* Bake : Take a quarter of the dough, and roll on a floured surface and start to cut the shaped desired. Keep the pieces in the fridge for 30 min before baking at 180 degrees for 18 min.

3* Make the royal icing: In the bowl of an electric mixer, add the eggs and the cream of tartar and mix until soft picks form. Stiff in the icing sugar and mix for 5 min. Add some icing sugar to make it thicker, and add some water to make it thiner, easy!

Merry Christmas Baking!