A Wardrobe Full Of Dreams...: Handmade Shoe and Handbag Gingerbread Biscuits

For Christmas, I was given this amazing cookie cutter set which contains handbag and shoe cutters. I think this set was originally bought from Sainsbury’s but I have found this seller on ebay who is selling very similar individual cutters.

I really enjoy baking (despite it been terrible for my new years get fit and eat healthier regime!) and trying out new recipes for biscuits and cakes. I find it really relaxing after a stressful day. I made this batch of biscuits to take into my work, so I won’t be able to just sit at home and eat them all myself, however tempting it is!

This is a very simple but very delicious recipe for gingerbread biscuits which look great when decorated too. This recipe is one the best recipes I have found for gingerbread – they really are yummy!

Makes: Approximately 20 biscuits depending on the cutters that you use

Ingredients

350g plain flour plus a little extra for rolling out
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
125g softened butter
175g light soft brown sugar
1 free range egg
4 tbsp golden syrup

To decorate:

Writing icing
Selection of cake decorations

Method

1) Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

2) Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl. Add the softened butter and mix together until the mixture looks a little bit like breadcrumbs. Pour in the sugar.

3) In a separate bowl, beat the egg and golden syrup together. Add this to the rest of the mixture and pulse until the mixture clumps together.

4) Lightly dust a clean surface with flour and knead the mixture until smooth and wrap it in cling film. Leave to chill in the fridge for about 15 minutes.

5) Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface until it measures about 0.5cm. Using cutters cut out the shapes and place them on a baking tray. Make sure to leave a gap in between each one because they will spread when cooking. You may need to cook them in separate batches if you run out of space on the baking tray.

6) Bake the biscuits for 12-15 until they are lightly golden brown. Once they are out of the oven, leave to cool on the tray for about 10 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

7) When cooled decorate with the writing icing and cake decorations to however you desire!

Decoration

There are so many different and amazing ways that you can decorate your biscuits.

To decorate mine I used:

Pink and white pearls – 84p from Asda
Coloured chocolate beads - 84p from Asda
White chocolate stars – 84p from Asda
Pink Sugar glimmer – 84p from Asda
Pink and white writing icing

I decorated mine really simply because i didn't want to take away from the gingerbread taste but I found these amazing decorated shoe and handbag cookies on the internet when I was researching how to decorate them. Don't they look amazing - almost too good to eat!