This gingerbread people recipe is a classic from the Women’s Weekly Vintage: Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits which was first published in 1982. Since then, it’s been reprinted six times, proving that Australia still can’t get enough of the Women’s Weekly biscuits and slices in it. And this recipe is a great example of why people love the book, giving you delicious, sugar-and-spice gingerbread people in around 45 minutes. It’s also simple enough that you can involve the whole family.
Ingredients
Method
Gingerbread people
Beat butter, sugar and yolk in small bowl with electric mixer until smooth. Stir in sifted dry ingredients and golden syrup; mix to a soft dough and knead gently on a lightly floured surface until smooth.
Roll dough between sheets of baking paper until 3 mm thick; place gingerbread shapes about 3 cm apart on greased oven trays. Bake in a moderate oven for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on trays.
To make icing, beat egg white in a small bowl with an electric mixer until frothy and gradually beat in enough sifted icing sugar to give a mixture of piping consistency. Colour as desired.
Spoon icing into piping bag fitted with a small plain tube and decorate shapes as desired.
Test Kitchen tips
- You only need 1 whole egg for this gingerbread recipe – use the yolk for the cookie dough and the white for the icing.
- Remember to preheat the oven for about 10 minutes.
- A ‘moderate’ oven temperature is 180°C for a conventional oven but if you have a fan-forced oven, check the operating instructions for best results.
- To prevent the royal icing from drying out, keep the bowl covered with a damp cloth.
- For a slightly softer icing, you could add a few drops of glycerine to the icing as suggested in our classic royal icing recipe.
What is gingerbread made of?
Every gingerbread recipe has different ingredients or quantities but you’ll almost always find ginger, sugar, butter and flour. Many traditional European and North American gingerbread recipes use molasses but you can use golden syrup to give it a lighter, sweeter taste, as we have in this classic recipe from 1982.
It’s worth noting that different types of molasses can also have a bitter caramel flavour or even taste salty in the case of blackstrap molasses. So you may want to taste it before using it in a gingerbread recipe. You can also typically substitute it for golden syrup using a 1:1 ratio if you’re following a different recipe.
According to an article in The Conversation UK, some of the oldest records of gingerbread actually include honey, which goes to show there are plenty of variations. But for the best results, it’s usually a good idea to follow the gingerbread recipe you’ve chosen – including the ingredients, quantities and method.
