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Gingerbread with Honey

Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time10 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Servings: 30 x 6cm hearts, 10 large gingerbread people, or 20 small gingerbread people
Author: Gina @ The Passionate Pantry

Ingredients

  • 1 scant tsp bi carb soda no more than 5g
  • 45 g hot water recently boiled

  • 290 g white spelt flour plain flour, or bakers flour
  • 50 g raw caster sugar or plain caster sugar
  • 40 g light muscovado sugar or brown sugar
  • 1 tbls ground ginger
  • 1 tsp sea salt flakes
  • 1/2 tsp mixed spice
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

  • 135 g honey or golden syrup
  • 20 g butter room temperature

Instructions

  • Boil the kettle and allow boiled water to sit for a few minutes whilst you continue with the recipe
  • Place the bi-carb soda in a small heat proof jug and put aside
  • Place dry ingredients into ™ bowl and mix 10 seconds / speed 5 to combine
  • Add the runny honey (see note) and butter and mix 20 seconds / speed 5
  • Remove the TM bowl from the Thermomix and place the jug with the bi-carb soda onto the carousel
  • Press the scale button and carefully pour 45g of hot water into the jug, remove the jug and stir the mix for a few seconds until the bubbles subside
  • Return the TM bowl to the Thermomix, add the bi-carb and water and knead for 45 seconds, or until it becomes dough like
  • Upturn the TM bowl onto your bench top and knead the dough lightly to bring the mix together into a smooth oblong shape ... this should only take 20 seconds or so
  • Wrap the mixture in a bread mat or Gladwrap and place into the fridge for 30 minutes until it cools completely (from having the hot water added)
  • Preheat oven to 170 degrees, fan forced, and line two trays with baking paper (you will need more than two trays but you can reuse them as you go)
  • Working with half the dough at a time, place dough onto a very lightly floured bench top
  • Place a little flour in a bowl to put your chosen cutter into, and have a little flour set aside on your bench to lightly rub over your rolling pin every now and then to stop the dough sticking (this is instead of sprinkling with top of dough with extra flour which can dry out your dough too much)
  • Roll dough out to 4mm thickness, dip your cutter of choice into flour and cut dough into desired shapes
  • Place onto baking trays leaving 5cm space between each shape
  • If making shapes that you wish to hang on a tree, then use a drinking straw to punch a hole into the dough before placing into the oven (you will need to repunch the hole when you remove the shapes from the oven to get a clean hole big enough to put your ribbon or jute through)
  • Add leftover dough from the first half, to the second half of dough and press together (it is better to press the dough together rather than knead it together as you may overwork the dough) and roll out to make more shapes, continuing until all the dough is used up
  • Bake for 8 minutes, or until done to your liking (cooking time depends on the size and thickness of the gingerbread ... bake for 10+ minutes if you like your gingerbread crunchier)
  • Once baked cool completely on cooling trays before storing in an airtight container
  • Gingerbread will keep in a sealed container for up to a month

Notes

I have tested this recipe using spelt flour vs plain flour vs baking flour, and honey vs golden syrup (a friend of mine is allergic to honey) and the difference is minimal, but I do prefer to use honey (the honey gives it a lovely flavour and a gorgeous colour). For the honey to properly incorporate into the mix it should be free flowing, so if your honey has crystalised warm it first before adding to the mix.
Roll the gingerbread to a thickness of 4mm so the cooking time noted in this recipe is for 4mm thickness. If you roll you dough thicker you will need to cook it for longer. If you like your gingerbread to be "crunchy" then bake for up to 12 minutes, or until done to your liking. And if over a few days your gingerbread softens more than you like due to humid weather, you can always refresh it in the oven for just a few minutes.
If planning to use these as heart decorations for your Christmas tree be aware that over a period of time the decorations will soften on the tree especially if we get humid weather. In Europe where it is cold at this time of year they can happily sit on the Christmas tree for weeks, but I found in Perth it all came down to the weather ... last year when we had a really humid day I came home to find a couple on the ground (Daisy - our gorgeous pooch - was mighty happy as all I found was the jute that hung them to the tree!). So ensure you make extra to refresh your tree closer to the BIG day so that your tree looks beautiful, and the kids that will want to pick at the gingerbread hearts will not be disappointed.
To punch a hole into the heart shape you need to use a drinking straw … keep re-using the same straw cutting off the end as it starts to become too full of dough to keep punching a hole properly, and continue until you use the whole straw up. This goes for when the gingerbread comes out of the oven too as you will need to repunch the hole … this way you will not use too many straws in the process.
This recipe can be doubled, but you will need to use the spatula to help move the mix around in the bowl for the first 30 seconds or so.