Gingerbread: Part II

Many people have asked me for the gingerbread recipe used to make the gingerbread houses (see the previous entry). Here it is. If there is an egg allergy in my class I will omit the egg from the gingerbread and icing.

1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup white sugar
2/3 cup molasses (or treacle)
1 egg
2-3/4 cups flour
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
parchment paper (aka baking paper)

Instructions
1. Combine margarine, sugar, molasses, egg, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl (I prefer a large mixer like a Kenwood or KitchenAid) and beat until well blended; use the mixing attachment as opposed to the whisk-style attachment to beat.

2. Add flour in stages and beat well. The dough is right when it acquires a soft, yet not sticky feel to it. The dough should be easy to roll.

3. Roll the dough (and cook it too) on the parchment paper to a thickness of about 3mm (but not thicker). If the dough is too thick the resultant cookie will be too soft and easily bent; the cooked gingerbread must be firm in order to support itself.

4. Cook for 10-12 minutes at 350°F (180°C) or until gingerbread is golden brown. It is preferable to slightly overcook (you can tell by the darkened edges) than to undercook the gingerbread.

5. For a neat stained-glass effect, try cutting out designs in the gingerbread and placing a hard candy (boiled lolly) in the cutout. This lolly will melt during baking.

6. After baking, transfer the cookies on parchment paper to a cooling rack. The cookies will peel away easily from the parchment paper when they have cooled (you will have to allow extra time for the boiled lollies to cool, otherwise they will stick slightly). I frequently use the same piece of baking paper 5-10 times, so keep it.

Royal Icing (my version)
1 egg white
200 g icing sugar

1. Put the egg white into a mixing bowl, add icing sugar and mix well (a wooden spoon works very well). The right consistency is attained when the icing very slowly falls off the spoon (it should be slightly glossy (don't you just hate these subjective words?)); if the icing runs freely off the spoon it is too runny and will not be much use when assembling your gingerbread house, and if it is too dry it will not flow at all and be next to impossible to pipe.

2. Transfer the icing to a sturdy plastic bag (the icing bag works very well) cut off the corner (2-3mm) and pipe.