Makes 30 cookies, Total Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (can use GF all purpose)
- 3/4 tsp xanthan gum (or cornstarch)
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar (or your preferred sugar alternative)
- 6 tbsp (84g) of room temperature unsalted butter
- 4 tbsp molasses
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 175°C. Line a baking tray or board with baking paper and set them aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground ginger and salt together until combined. Then add the brown sugar and whisk again until combined.
3. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the butter, molasses, honey, egg and vanilla extract and mix until combined after each ingredient is added. This will form a thick and sticky dough-like mixture.
4. Lay this mixture out onto the baking paper on the baking tray and cover with another sheet of baking paper. With a rolling pin, roll mixture into a rectangle around 2cm thick. If the dough is overly sticky, place in the fridge or freezer for 5-10 minutes to allow it to firm up.
5. Once you are happy with the mixture, remove the top baking paper and with a gingerbread person cutter, dip the edge in all purpose flour or cornstarch and use it to cut shapes out of the cookie dough.
6. Once all viable dough has been used, place these in the freezer for about 10 minutes or until the cookies are firm.
7. When you are happy with the firmness of the dough, peel back the rest of the dough from the cut-outs and gather the scraps, carefully peeling the shapes and placing them on preparing baking sheets/tray. You can use the remaining dough by repeating the process of rolling the mixture out and cutting shapes until it is all used. You can place the original cut outs back in the freezer until you have finished this second round to maintain its firmness.
8. Now that all of the cut outs are complete, place the prepared trays in the preheated oven and bake for about 8 minutes or until just set. Remove from the oven and allow to completely cool down before moving or decorating.
9. If you would like to decorate, you can use a mixture of 1 1/2 cups of pure sifted icing sugar. 1 egg white and 1/2 tsp lemon juice and then add food colouring if you want to dress the gingerbread people up! Allow 24 hours cooling/setting time before stacking them so the decorations stay in place. Enjoy!