Gingerbread Reindeer

Nothing smells and says Christmas more than a festively decorated homemade gingerbread man, this is the same simple recipe with a slight twist! You turn your gingerbread man upside down and he becomes a reindeer!

Ingredients

350g plain flour
125g butter – chopped into cubes
3 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
150g soft brown sugar
4 tablespoons golden syrup
1 egg

For Decorating

Icing for writing
Chocolate sweets such as smarties or M&M’s

Method

Heat the oven to 180 fan and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.

Place the flour, cinnamon, ginger and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl and add the butter.

Using your fingers rub in the butter until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. Or you can use a food processor and pulse until you get the breadcrumb texture.

Add the sugar, egg and syrup and combine until the mixture comes together to form a dough. Again if you are using a food processor pulse until the mixture comes together. The mixture should now be a smooth dough.

Wrap the mixture in cling film and leave in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to firm up.

Lightly flour your work surface and roll out the dough to approx half a cm thick and cut out your shapes. You can use any Christmas themed cutters, I have used a gingerbread man and turned him upside down to make a reindeer!

Repeat the process until you have used up all your dough. This dough is very forgiving and won’t harm with handling.

Place on your lined baking trays and bake for approximately 12-15minutes until browned.

Leave the shapes on the tray to cool slightly and then transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.  

Once cool decorate with icing and chocolate sweets for the nose!

This is a fun recipe to make with the family, the children will love being involved with rolling and cutting the dough, not to mention decorating them once cool. Or just cheekily eating all of  Rudolph’s spare noses!

Kirsty Wilson Close

Instagram  kirsty_in_the_kitchen

Food Styling, Food Writing, Food Lover