Gingerbread (Man)

Let me spread my wings a bit more and explore my blind area in cooking. i.e BAKING. I so love to bake but I feel a certain fear inside me when ever I think to bake some mouth watering stuffs. Maybe I should blame it on my oven. My oven has its own mood swings!! So I always am careful before baking something. Today I conquered the oven and made some delicious Ginger breads! Gingerbreads became popular from the medieval times & were baked for all occasions. The very first Gingerbread MAN was made in the royal kitchens of Queen Elizabeth I, where she presented the Gingerbread MAN to each of her dignitaries for their own likeness. GREAT!!

Before sharing the recipe,let me share a funny scene between the Villain and the Gingerbread Man from the movie SHREK. I love it!!

(The Villain has captured the Gingerbread Man & is torturing him)

VILLAIN: 'Run, run, run, as fast as you can. You can't catch me. I'm the Gingerbread Man!'

GINGERBREAD MAN: You're a monster.

VILLAIN: I'm not the monster here, you are. You, and the rest of that fairy tale trash poisoning my perfect world. Now tell me where are the others!

GINGERBREAD MAN: Eat me!! Ha!

Ingredients:

• 350 gm / 12 oz self raising flour (maida or plain flour)
• 175 gm / 6 oz light soft brown sugar
• 100 gm / 4 oz butter (room temperature)
• 1 medium egg
• 4 tbsp golden syrup (you can use honey too)
• 1 tsp soda bicarbonate
• 1 & 1/2 tsp ground ginger (saunth/dried ground ginger/chukku)
• pastry rolling pin
• pastry/cookie cutter

Method:

• Take a mixing bowl and sift the flour in it. Add the butter, soda and the ground ginger to it and mix it all together with your hands until crumbly.
• Pre - heat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.
• In a separate bowl, add the sugar, egg and golden syrup and mix it well with hand or a beater until the suger melts and mixes well with the egg and syrup.
• Now slowly add the egg-sugar mixture to the crumbly flour and make a firm pastry dough out of it. Add little by little and it is not necessary to use the full sugary mixture. Use only required amount.
• Now on a clean, flat surface, throw some flour and roll out the dough to 5 mm thick with the rolling pin. Cut the flat dough with your cookie cutter, the desired shape you want.
• Place the cut shapes onto a greased baking tray. I use a non-stick tray so I don't grease it.
• Put the trays inside the oven and bake the cookies for 12- 15 min. Check often after 8th minute. Different ovens give different results. So to check whether your cookies are done, all you need to see is that they turn light brown and when the tray is shaken, they move easily and not stick to the tray. Don't worry about the cookie being soft. Once cooled, it will become hard.
• Your Gingerbreads are ready. If you want to be creative, decorate it with some gems/smarties and choco-chips. I use the ready made writing fudge to stick the gems on the ginger breads.

PS: You can add some ground cinnamon or ground nutmeg along with the ground ginger.