Gingerbread house cookies
Prep + cook time 1 ½ hours (+ refrigeration and standing time)
Ingredients
3 cups (450g) plain flour
1 ½ cups (330g) caster sugar
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
200g butter, melted
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 egg, beaten lightly
300g white chocolate melts, melted, cooled
Length of ribbon or cord, for hanging (optional)
Method
Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl (A). Combine melted butter, golden syrup and egg in a small bowl.
Stir butter mixture into the dry ingredients until combined. Knead dough for 5 minutes or until smooth. Divide the dough into 2, press into a disc and wrap each in cling film. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Roll each piece of dough between two sheets of baking paper to about 4mm thick. Place in freezer for 15 minutes. Using a 5cm square cutter or cardboard template, cut out 36 squares (B). Cut 12 of the squares in half to form two triangles.
Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan. Grease oven trays and line with baking paper.
Arrange squares on trays about 3cm apart. Place a triangle on top of each square slightly overlapping to form a house shape. Press gently over the join to seal (C). Using a skewer, make a small hole in the top of each house, not too close to the edge.
Bake cookies for 10 minutes or until golden. Stand cookies on trays for 10 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool.
Fill a small piping bag (see tip) with melted chocolate, cut a small hole from the tip of the bag. Pipe chocolate onto biscuits using picture as a guide (D). Stand until set.
If using biscuits as decoration, thread ribbon through hole to hang biscuits. Undecorated cookies suitable to freeze.
Top tip
Cool trays between each batch. The shapes will feel soft when they’re cooked, but will crisp on cooling. If you prefer, you can use writing icing, available from the baking aisle in supermarkets.
