As it’s the last Pieday Friday before Christmas, I thought I’d share a couple of festive recipes to kick-start your yuletide baking – gingerbread cookies and Christmas morning muffins.
The first is a very traditional recipe for making gingerbread men, but here I have used cookie cutters from Wholeport to cut out the pieces to build a small 3D sleigh – how cool are these cutters?! So here’s how I did it: First I melted 50g margarine with 100g soft brown sugar and 3 tablespoons of golden syrup and stirring together before adding to a bowl with 300g plain flour, a pinch of salt and 3 teaspoons of ground ginger. I mixed this together and then added 4 tablespoons of milk to bring it together into a dough. I then rolled out the dough and cut out the pieces using the cookie cutters – you can use gingerbread men shaped cutters, or normal cookie cutters such as stars and circles. Bake the cookies on greaseproof paper for 10-15 minutes at 160 degrees. After they had cooled I used chocolate icing decorate the sleigh.
The second recipe is for spiced banana muffins for breakfast on Christmas morning. The batter is super-easy to make and they only take 10-15 minutes to bake in the oven. Mix 225g self-raising flour with a pinch of salt, 2 teaspoons on cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. In another bowl, cream 75g butter with 175g sugar and beat in 2 eggs before mixing into the flour. Add 450g mashed bananas and a handful of sultanas (however much you like – I put in loads!) and mix to make the batter. Put into muffin cases (like the ones I use from Wholeport) or this can even be baked as a loaf in a greased, lined tin. Bake at 180 degrees for 10-15 minutes for muffins and around 45 minutes for the loaf, checking with a cocktail stick to see if the batter has set in the middle. These are great muffins to have for breakfast on Christmas morning!
I hope you enjoy baking over Christmas and I’d love to see your recipes – tweet me photos of your festive treats at @Cassiefairy
