The BEST Gingerbread Cookie Recipe To Try Out This Christmas

Its that time of the year where the evenings get darker, the weather gets colder and all of a sudden it's Christmas again! For me, the winter time is all about food and drink - hot chocolates, roast dinners and gingerbread cookies. Its been a long standing tradition of mine to bake personalised gingerbread cookies for my family members, and in recent years my boyfriend's family members. I'll attach the best photos of these cookies below for you to pass judgement on my sometimes lacking icing skills. However, this is a tradition that last year extended further than my family and into a cocktail competition last winter for a seasonal drink garnish. The positive reaction to my cookies affirmed my correct belief that these are the best gingerbread cookies ever! And in light of the seasonal joy of giving, I am going to be sharing my recipe - one that I have adapted from multiple favourites to create the best tasting (and simple to follow) method to making your own batch of sweet treats.

These are my cookies, personalised stockings and iced trees and bells:

Ingredients:

140g unsalted butter

30g golden syrup

100g brown sugar

100g caster sugar

1 large egg

300g plain flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon sweet cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream together with a wooden spooon the butter, brown sugar and caster sugar until light in colour. (To be completely honest with you, I will sometimes use granulated sugar, or all brown sugar or all white sugar. It really depends on what I have on hand.)

2. Add to the bowl the egg, vanilla extract and golden syrup (I have written a measurement for them, but like most things when it comes to cooking/baking, I judge the amount by my heart) and beat together until smooth.

3. To save some washing up and adding another bowl to this, I place the flour, salt, baking powder, ground ginger and sweet cinnamon (and once again anything with the word 'teaspoon' next to it is measured by the soul) on top. Without disturbing the wet ingredients, mix together the dry ones as best as is possible.

4. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together until a dough has formed. You might need to use your hands to form the dough ball. At this stage if I think the mixtures looks too wet I'll add some more flour and if I think it looks too dry, I'll add some more golden syrup. This section of the method is all about personal intuition and going with what you feel is and looks right.

5. Once the ball is to your liking, wrap it in clingfilm or pop it in a ziplock bag and squeeze into the fridge for at least half an hour. This cools the dough down so it's a little bit easier to work with in the next stage as warm dough is rather tough to roll out.

6. After 30 minutes, take your dough out of the fridge and preheat your oven to 180°C / 160°C Fan / Gas Mark 4 / (and for our American readers) 350°F.

7. Dust your surface with a generous amount of flour and place your ball of the dough in the middle. (Sometimes I will cut my dough in half or even quarters to make it a little bit more manageable to roll out). Using a rolling pin (or empty wine bottle - have used both and they both work really well) roll the dough until its about 1 cm thick.

8. Now its time for the fun part - playing cookie cutter Tetris. Cut out your gingerbread men, women, people and any other shape that takes your fancy and you believe will be easy to ice.

9. Place on baking paper on an oven safe tray and bake for about 10 minutes. This really depends on the strength of your oven and how you'd like them to be cooked. I like mine slightly soft on the inside but tough enough on the outside to be able to pick up without them crumbling in half. I leave mine in the oven between 9 and 12 minutes, just until their golden and will ever so slightly dent and the light press of a fingertip. If that all makes sense.

10. Once baked to your happiness, leave them to fully cool down - this is normally 20 minutes or so.

11. How I prep my icing sugar mixture is completely unorthodox but it has yet to fail me. I will lightly combine a small amount of butter - maybe a teaspoon or two - with a good amount of icing sugar. Once it looks like it won't mix any further, I slowly add less than a teaspoon at a time of warm water, all while mixing to form a paste that is on the thick side but looks gooey enough to pipe with. After reading this back, this is a truly shit explanation but the best once I can give in the written form - if you look at my personal TikTok I have a video showing you how I do it.

12. Once the cookies are fully cooled down, ice away! I'll add some Pinterest photos for some inspiration for the many design you can create. Once the icing has set, munch to your hearts content. In personal experience they are brillant with a mug of hot chocolate while watching Love Actually. Happy Baking!