As the weather has started to get cooler and we have spent less time outdoors, I've been having a look through our cookbooks to see what I could make with the kids. To be fair, I was looking for a healthy main meal to make with them, but Rupert and Isla spotted these Gingerbread men and we've given them a try.
Making them with the children and seeing the joy in their eyes when they get to mix, stir and taste - and then decorate - is wonderful! It made me realise how I used to do this a lot with Josh when he was younger. I'd forgotten that it's actually quite quick and easy to do and far less mess than I was dreading (well, most of the time, anyway!).
This has become our new favourite activity and in terms of ingredients the biscuits are not all that bad either, I think.
Gingerbread men
125g of butter
125g of brown sugar
1 small egg
225g of plain flour
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons of mixed spice
icing sugar
decorations
Mix the ingredients together until they form a ball - if the mixture is too wet, add some more flour until to get the right consistency. Roll out the dough until it is about half a cm thick - then use cookie cutters to make gingerbread men shapes (or any other shapes you like). Put the shapes on a baking tray and bake in the hot oven at 190C for about 12 minutes until they are pale brown. Remove the biscuits from the oven and let them cool before decorating them.
The other treat I've been making with them as a fun activity to do together as well as a great snack for when they come back starving after school, are these flap jacks - they love making them with me and do lots of tasting along the way! Although the fact that they can't be 'decorated' once they are made, makes them less of a favourite than the biscuits for the kids - at least when it comes to the making process. When it comes to eating them, they love the flapjacks just as much as the Gingerbread men :-)
Flap jacks
125g of sugar
50g of demerara sugar
1 tablespoon of golden syrup
225g of porridge oats
75g raisins
Put the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan and melt the ingredients together. Take off the heat and add the porridge oats and raisins and mix well. Pour the mix into a greased tin and press down. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. When cooked, cut the flapjacks into squares and let them cool before transferring to an airtight container to store.
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