Gingerbread Men

My house smelt incredibly Christmassy while popping batches of these smiley gingerbread men in the oven. I’m not a huge fan of gingerbread but Shane is and I have been meaning to make him some the last few Christmas’ and have just run out of time/been a bit lazy! Last year I saw on Pinterest some gingerbread men in a jar and then a few weeks ago I spotted the same idea in the Chelsea gift guide, this compelled me to finally bake a batch. My recipe is slightly different to the Chelsea recipe but works off the same principal (meaning if you want to have a go at making gingerbread men in jars you can download the gift tag/instructions here, cheeky huh?!).

Makes 20.

Ingredients:
Dry
2½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg

Wet
125 grams butter, softened
½ cup golden syrup
1 egg yolk

Method:
In the bowl of your mixer beat butter with golden syrup and egg yolk until creamy and smooth.
Add the dry ingredients (contents of the jar) and mix on a medium speed until a soft dough forms.
Lay some cling film on your bench or a hard surface, place your dough on to the cling film and knead into a ball. Wrap the cling film around the ball and chill for 20 minutes.
While your dough is chilling, pre-heat oven to 170ºC and line two baking trays with baking paper.
Roll out gingerbread dough to about 3 mm (if its sticky roll between two sheets of baking paper – I did this and found it worked very well).
Cut using a gingerbread man shaped cookie cutter. Transfer to baking trays and cook for 8-12 minutes (until golden) depending on how hard you like your gingerbread.
If you want to decorate your gingerbread men/people it is best to use royal icing, you can buy powder for this at the supermarket or you can make your own using the left over egg white by beating the egg white with a whisk attachment until it is foamy. At this point you can sift in 1/2 cup of icing sugar, stir and repeat until the icing holds it shape, which is important if you can going to pipe it on (this shouldn't take more than 1 – 1 1/2 cups). Transfer icing to a piping bag an decorate as desired.

I think these gingerbread men will make the perfect gift for those who love to eat home baking but don’t necessarily like to get in the kitchen and bake. The jars on the other hand are the perfect homemade gift for bakers of all levels of experience at this time of year.

Father’s Day Baking Ideas

This Sunday is Father’s Day, it has caught me a little off guard this year as it seemed very early in the month and I was sure that like Mother’s Day that it was the second Sunday of the month! If you have made the same mistake and don’t have time to hit the shops then you might find some of these ideas handy and what Dad wouldn’t love a gift that was made by his darling child…

1. Savoury Food. Dad’s seem to love savoury stuff, I guess it’s more ‘blokey’ and sustaining than cupcake – not that there’s anything wrong with a cupcake, especially if you can add bacon to that cupcake!

Pictured above: Kumara and Bacon Savoury Slice, Ham, Cheese and Broccoli Quiche, Pumpkin Feta Muffins, Mini Vegetable Frittatas, Potato, Bacon and Cheese Frittata.

2. Bake Dad a batch of biscuits, make him a cuppa and take him the Sunday papers.

Pictured above: Afghan Biscuits, Cowboy Cookies, Anzac Biscuits, One Dough – Hundreds of Biscuits.

3. Make Dad some special bread as part of a Father’s Day brunch.

Pictured above: Beer Bread, Spinach Feta Plait, Cinnamon Pull Apart Loaf.

4. Bake him a cake and help him eat it!

Pictured above: Sour Cream Lemon Cake, Carrot Cake, Spiced Apple Cake, Banana Cake, Red Velvet Cake.

And if none of these cakes take your fancy, why not try out the chocolate beer cake I made for Father’s Day last year or check out the recipe index there is plenty more inspiration there.

Happy Father’s Day to all you wonderful Father’s! Mel and I also want to wish our own Dad’s a Happy Father’s Day xox

Mothers Day Baking Ideas

Here in New Zealand it is Mothers Day this weekend on Sunday, so why not bake Mum some treats.  Here’s six ideas that are sure to be a hit…

1. Make Mum a beautiful box of handmade biscuits.

Pictured above: Neiman Marcus Cookies, One Dough Hundreds of Biscuits, Midnight Cookies, Gluten Free Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter Cookies, Choctastic Cookies.

2. Bake a cake!

Pictured above: Sour Cream Lemon Cake, Carrot Cake, Spiced Apple Cake, Banana Cake, Red Velvet Cake.

3. Treat Mum to brunch or afternoon tea.

Pictured above: Kumara and Bacon Savoury Slice, Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins, Mini Vegetable Frittatas, Ham, Cheese and Broccoli Quiche, Herb and Cheese Muffins, Marshmallow Brownie Cupcakes.

4. Fudge is always good!

Pictured above: Triple Chocolate Fudge, Fran’s Fantastic Fudge, Five Minute Fudge, Chocolate Hazelnut Slice, Caramel Fudge.

5. Make Mum dinner and then spoil her with a delicious desert.

Pictured above: Oreo Cheesecake, Passionfruit Custard Pots, Lemon Tart, Lemon Meringue Pie, White Chocolate Tart covered in berries, Salted Caramel and Chocolate Tart.

6. Put together a jar of sand art brownie mix as a gift for Mum.  We made these as Christmas presents and they were very popular.  Why not decorate the jar with ribbon and in colours more suited for Mothers Day?

There are heaps more brilliant recipes on the blog so have a look around.  Check out our Recipe Index for more ideas.  Whatever you end up doing, I hope you spoil your Mum and show her how much you love her.

Happy Mothers Day!

Cranberry and White Chocolate Cookies with Pecans

At coffee group today my lovely friend Cara made us all some delicious cookies that had white chocolate, pecans and cranberries in them, there is something about these ingredients that screamed Christmas to me! They were so good that I couldn’t even wait for her to send me the recipe so I could get a batch in the oven, so I googled them and found this recipe but I had to adapt it a little bit to include pecans, I also found it a little wet for a cookie dough so sifted in a little more flour and rolled oats. You can find my adapted recipe below.
Ingredients:1 cup plain flour
¼  teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
¼ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup firmly packed brown sugar
⅓ cup caster sugar
1  cup rolled oats
¼ cup chopped pecans
100g dried cranberries
130g white chocolate chips
125g butter, melted and cooled
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Method:Preheat your oven to 180°C. Line two baking trays with wax baking paper.
Place dry ingredients into a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer. Add butter, egg and vanilla. Stir/mix (on slow to medium) until well combined. Shape small tablespoons of mixture into balls and place on baking trays approximately 5cm apart.
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, swapping trays halfway during cooking, or until edges are lightly browned.
Turn biscuits onto a wire rack to cool.

Photo from taste.com.au

The recipe is perfect to place in a jar for a pretty and delicious Christmas gift as you can see from the above photo, just like the Sand Art Brownies Melissa posted the other day. To do this you will need a 1L jar and to sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl. Spoon the flour mixture into a 1L capacity glass jar. Top with brown sugar, then caster sugar. Top with oats, then cranberries, then chocolate chips and pecans. Seal jar and wrap with a ribbon along with a card instructing the recipient about what the wet ingredients are and the method to combine and bake.

P.S. Melissa was right, I go nuts for Christmas! My tree usually goes up in November but it won’t this year as we are selling our house. I am also more excited for Christmas than any other year I can remember as I have Max to fuss over and he is old enough to at least enjoy ripping all the paper off his presents!

Sand Art Brownies

Psst… I’m already getting excited for Christmas.  It’s my first time that I have my own home to decorate and I really want to do it right now – except it is only November and Simon looks at me at any mention of Christmas and just shakes his head (which is why my excitement for Christmas is a secret because I’m sure most people would agree with him).  However, I didn’t think he would say ‘no’ to baking.  I think I am going to channel my eagerness into some Christmas-ey baking which might seem way to early for most of you, but it does mean that when Christmas does arrive you should have a few cute recipes on here to choose from when you are feeling festive (Courtenay also goes crazy for Christmas so you will probably see recipes from her too).

This jar of brownie ingredients looks really beautiful and would make an awesome Christmas gift.  I’ve tried baking as gifts for people in the past and it is actually stressful – late nights baking enough stuff and repeating batches of biscuits as one always gets burnt!  This idea takes the fuss out of it all; simply put the ingredients in a jar, tie it with a pretty ribbon and write up a recipe card.  It also means the recipient can bake the brownies when they feel like it instead of worrying about the baking you’ve given them going to waste because they already have heaps of food about for Christmas.

Now, if you aren’t in a Christmas mood at all you should still give these brownies a go as they are darn delicious!

Makes 16 pieces

1 ½ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup brown sugar
⅓ cup cocoa
½ cup white sugar
½ cup dark chocolate bits
½ cup white chocolate bits
¾ cup walnut pieces
125g butter, melted
2 eggs, lightly whisked
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

In a 1 – 1.25 litre glass jar, place a layer of ingredients in this order: flour, salt, baking powder, brown sugar, cocoa, white sugar, dark chocolate, (then milk chocolate if you’re a chocolate fiend like me), white chocolate and finish with the walnut pieces.

Seal the lid and decorate with a ribbon and card that has the following instructions:

To Make:
Heat oven to 180°C. Line a 20cm square pan with baking paper. Pour the contents of the jar into a bowl and stir to combine. Make a well in the centre and pour in 125g melted butter, 2 beaten eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla essence. Mix until smooth. Pour the mixture into the lined pan and bake for 30 minutes until firm. Cool in the pan and cut into 16 pieces.

You can download a printable version of the recipe card instructions and view a quick ‘How To’ guide on how to make a card like the one included in this post here.