My friend Sarah gives the best Christmas presents, 3D dinosaur biscuit cutters!
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I was a bit miffed that I hadn't got around to baking any gingerbread biscuits at Christmas, so these cutters gave me the perfect excuse to bake some this month.
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camouflage stegosaurus
The biscuits turned out more like super syrup-y gingersnaps than gingerbread as the dough needed to be rolled out fairly thin in order for the dinosaur legs to slot comfortably into the bodies. That's not necessarily a bad thing but it's worth noting they're crunchy rather than a chewy centred gingerbread. They're great tea dunkers, providing you're ok with the possibility of icing flaking off into your cup. (Part of the dunking thrill surely?)
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"Hey, what do you think of my Lord Nelson jug. Pretty groovy, right?"
"Fabulously retro, darling'"
"Fabulously retro, darling'"
Needless to say, I had a lot of fun making and decorating these dinosaurs and setting them around my dresser in crockery attack formations. They've certainly amused all the visitors to the house this week. Dinosaur fun for everybody!
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Gingerbread/snap dinosaur biscuits
Original recipe from a recipe card in an Usborne baking pack (funnily enough, I think it was also a present from Sarah many years ago.) I've made a couple of tweaks/substitutions:
Original recipe from a recipe card in an Usborne baking pack (funnily enough, I think it was also a present from Sarah many years ago.) I've made a couple of tweaks/substitutions:
350g (12oz) plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
100g (4oz) chilled butter
100g (4oz) light muscovado sugar
75g (2oz) soft dark brown sugar
1 large egg
2- 3 tbsp golden syrup (enough to bring the dough together)
for the royal icing:
1 egg white (or 1 sachet of egg white powder)
1/2 tsp lemon juice
300g icing sugar
Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and ginger into a large bowl. Cut the butter into small chunks and rub into the flour with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar. Break the eggs into a jug and lightly beat with a fork. Add the syrup and beat again. Pour the eggy syrup into the flour mixture and mix until it forms a dough. Wrap in the dough clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
Cut the dough in half. Sprinkle the (clean) worktop with flour and roll out one piece of the dough until it's about 3mm thick if you're making 3D dinosaurs (about 5mm thick is fine for ordinary biscuits). Cut out all your shapes and transfer to baking trays (make sure your trays have a dusting of flour to stop your biscuits sticking!) Roll out the rest of the dough and cut more shapes.
Bake in the oven for about 8 minutes. Keep an eye on them! The dough is rolled out thin so the edges don't take long to colour. Thicker (ordinary) biscuits will take longer, 12-15 minutes. Leave to cool on the trays for a few minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack.
For royal icing, beat together the egg white and lemon juice. (If using egg white powder, follow the instructions on the sachet to reconstitute the egg white before adding the lemon.) Gradually add the icing sugar, mixing well between each addition. Whisk the mixture until it forms stiff peaks. Add more icing sugar if you think it looks too runny. Divide the mixture into a couple of bowls and add a few drops of food colouring. Once you've reached your desired shade dollop the icing into a piping bag fitted with a nozzle and have fun decorating!