Chocolate Gingerbread Men Recipe
A little choco twist on the classic gingerbread recipe - same spices but tuned up a little bit. No need for food processor - just a wooden spoon.
Ingredients
- 360 gram all purpose flour
- 150 g butter softened
- 150 gram dark brown sugar
- 25 gram fair trade, unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 heaped tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
- 100 gram maple syrup
- 50 gram honey
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 medium egg
- 30 gram white chocolate melted
Instructions
- Measure out all the ingredients.
- Add all the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl and combine evenly.
- Warm up the butter in the microwave oven, until very soft - you don't need to melt it.
- In a smaller mixing bowl, combine all the remaining ingredients: the soft butter, vanilla extract, egg (beaten), honey and maple syrup.
- First with the help of a wooden spoon, mix the contents of the two mixing bowls together, as much as you can. Then, start kneading it. The dough should feel greasy and shiny, easy to work with. When done, cover with a cloth and put it into the fridge foe a minimum of 3 hours. (Forget the cling film please!)
- Cut them out and place them on a baking tray lined with a grease proof baking paper. Preheat oven to 170 Celsius and bake them in batches.
- The smaller ones are done in 6-8 minutes whilst the larger ones need 10-12 minutes. All ovens are different - better to keep checking them in every 2-3 minutes. Let them cool down before decorating.
- Melt the white chocolate above boiling water. Don't microwave it as it does not melt the same way as the dark and burns quickly.
- Because of the grease content of the white chocolate, I found it impossible to pipe it. But applying it with a bamboo skewer worked perfectly.
- Enjoy :)
