Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Pre-heat your oven to 190C / 170C Fan / 375F fan and line 3 baking sheets with baking or parchment paper.
Rub the butter and flour together
- Measure the flour and add it to a large mixing bowl. Next, measure the butter and cut it into small pieces.Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the sugar, ginger and bicarbonate of soda
- Measure the sugar then add it into the flour mixture. Add the ginger and bicarbonate of soda and mix it all in. Use your finger to level the teaspoon so that you add just the right amount.Mix it all in with a wooden spoon.
Add the remaining ingredients
- Measure out the golden syrup and add that to your bowl.Crack the egg into a separate bowl before adding it to your mixing bowl just in case any shell goes in.
- Mix everything together until you have a smooth dough. We started with wooden spoons, then once it was less messy, brought it together with our hands. Squeeze it together so it stops crumbling apart, and makes a nice ball of gingerbread dough.
Make the ginger reindeer biscuits
- The recipe makes quite a lot of dough so you might find it easier to divide the dough in half. Set one half aside until later. Then, on a lightly floured work surface get your kids to roll the other half of dough out until it is about 5mm thick.Try to rotate your dough in between rolls – so roll it out in one direction, then pick it up, rotate it by 90 degrees before rolling it again. This should stop it sticking too badly. You can add a little more flour under the dough in between rolls.
- Cut out your gingerbread reindeer using a man shaped or round cookie cutter. Place them on your baking tray. You can use a palette knife to help lift them on if you like.Gather up any scraps and roll out again. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Bake the gingerbread reindeer cookies
- Bake your cookies in the oven for about 10-12 minutes. They're ready when they become a slightly darker shade. Remove them from the oven and leave them to cool slightly on their baking trays then gently pop them on a wire rack to cool completely.
Decorate the reindeer cookies
- If you have icing writers you can use them to ice on the antlers, and add a little dot where the nose should go before sticking down the red Smartie/chocolate drop.
- If you don't have icing writers, you can mix up a little of your own icing. Measure in the icing sugar, then add a teaspoon or so of water and mix it together. You want it to be runny enough to pipe but no so runny that it won't hold it's shape once you pipe it. If you need to keep adding a little more icing sugar or a little more water until it's just the right consistency.
- Add the icing to a piping bag or small freezer bag, seal it and cut a tiny hole in the corner. Add a little dot of icing and use that to stick down the nose and eyes. You can also pipe on antlers. If your kids are little and find drawing the antlers too difficult, you could do that while they take charge of the eyes and red nose.
- Leave the reindeer cookies to set. Serve and enjoy!