Edinburgh Gingerbread Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9-inch square pan.
• In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the egg, and mix in the molasses.
• In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Blend into the creamed mixture. Stir in the hot water. Pour into the prepared pan.
• Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan before serving.

Steps:

• Beat the butter in a stand mixer or with electric beaters until it is soft and then beat in, one by one, the sugar, golden syrup and treacle. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Tip in the flour, baking powder and ginger along with a pinch of salt and beat in the flour on a slow speed until it is just combined. The dough will be very soft at this point. Scrape the dough into a container and chill it in the fridge for about 8 hours or overnight. You don't have to leave it for this long but it does improve the flavour.
• To roll out the dough you'll need a non-stick work surface that is lightly dusted with flour. Scoop out a small batch of the dough (it will still be very soft) and roll it out carefully to about 2mm thick. Cut out gingerbread people or circles and transfer them to a lined baking sheet. When you have filled the sheet (leaving enough room for spreading) put it into the fridge for 30 mins along with the remaining dough (you can freeze the dough in batches, if you like).
• Heat the oven to 170C/150C fan/gas 3. Cook the gingerbread for the 10-12 minutes depending on level of crispness don't try and remove them from the sheet until the gingerbread shapes have cooled enough. Cool completely and then decorate if you want. You can freeze the cooked gingerbread if you like, or keep for up to 3 days in an airtight container

Steps:

• Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Grease and line the base and sides of a deep 20cm cake tin with baking parchment. Put the honey, sugar and butter in a medium saucepan and cook over a medium heat until fully melted. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Put the flour and spices in a large bowl and mix everything together.
• Once the liquid ingredients have cooled, whisk in the eggs. Pour over the dry ingredients, whisking them together to form a smooth batter - be careful not to overmix as this can lead to a dry cake. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 50-55 mins or until risen and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 20 mins before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
• Once cooled, use a large serrated knife to slice the cake into 3 layers. Spread the jam across the 2 bottom cake layers, then reassemble the cake and set aside while you make the glaze. Put the cream, chocolate and honey in a medium pan and cook over a low-medium heat until the chocolate is melted and you have a smooth, pourable mixture. Put the cake on a wire rack set over a parchment-lined baking tray and pour over the glaze, making sure to cover the entire cake. Use a fish slice to carefully transfer the cake to a serving plate and allow the glaze to set. To decorate, dust with a little edible gold powder, if you like. Uniced, this cake will keep for up to 5 days. Once iced, enjoy within 3 days - just keep in the fridge, but remove before serving and eat at room temperature.

Steps:

• Heat the butter, syrup and sugar together in a small pan until melted, stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool slightly.
• Mix together the bicarb, ginger, cinnamon and flour in a large bowl. Pour in the buttery syrup mixture and stir to combine, then use your hands to bring together to form a dough. The dough will be soft at this point, but it'll firm up in the fridge.
• Put the dough on a sheet of baking parchment, shape into a rectangle, and lay another sheet of parchment on top of it. Roll the dough out to a thickness of ½cm. Transfer to a baking sheet to keep it flat, leaving the parchment in place, then chill in the fridge for 1 hr.
• Heat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5 and line a large baking sheet with more baking parchment. Remove the dough from the fridge and cut out shapes using a cookie cutter. We used 9cm stars, but you can choose any shape. We also made some with smaller stars cut out of the centre to thread ribbon through and hang from a Christmas tree.
• Place the shapes, spread apart, on the lined baking sheet, and bake for 10-12 mins. (Depending on the size of the cutters you use, they might need a few minutes more or less cooking in the oven). Leave to cool completely on the baking sheet.
• Meanwhile, mix the icing sugar with 1-2 tbsp water - you want to create a consistency that's thick and pipeable, and not too thin or it will run. Decorate the cooled biscuits with the icing using a piping bag with a thin nozzle. Find out how to make a piping bag.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan and dust with flour or line with parchment paper.
• Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg together in a medium mixing bowl. Set aside.
• Combine milk, brown sugar, molasses, oil, applesauce, and eggs in a large bowl; mix together until well blended. Stir into flour mixture until just blended. Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan.
• Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let cool completely, about 15 minutes. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and store at room temperature, or freeze.