Get into that Christmas Spirit!

We've been having fun experimenting with Gingerbread decorations at our place. I have an adapted Gingerbread recipe which doesn't rise as much as the recipe in the Festive Recipe - making it pefect to keep it's shape for decorations.

Ingredients:
450g Plain Flour

165g Brown Sugar
1 tbsp ground Ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground clove
185g Butter, chopped coursly
200g Golden Syrup
1 Egg

Royal Icing
1 egg white
200g sugar

Stained Glass Windows
Boiled Lollies – sorted by colours

Method
Pre heat oven to 180ºC.
Place all ingredients into TM bowl except the egg white and mix for12 seconds on speed 6.
Set dial to closed lid position and knead for 50 seconds on Interval setting.
Tip gingerbread mixture onto lightly floured Silpat baking mat and knead into a smooth ball.
Place the mixture into a covered bowl and put in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Between two pieces of baking paper roll out the gingerbread mixture to approximately 4mm in thickness.
Remove top layer of paper and cut the gingerbread into desired shapes, e.g. gingerbread men, stars, hearts etc.
Place onto lined baking tray and bake for approximately 10 minutes, depending on size and shape. Place on cooling tray when cooked.

Ginger Bread Christmas Tree

Make Gingerbread recipe as above.

For each tree, you will need 2-3 each of 5 different sized star shapes cut out of ginger bread (3cm, 5cm, 6cm, 7cm and 9cm or there abouts).
Bake stars (smaller ones only require 10 minutes, larger ones require 12 minutes). Meanwhile make Royal Icing.
To assemble, join the 9cm stars with Royal icing, then the 7cm stars, then the 6 cm stars and so on (refer to picture). Decorate trees by joining cachous to stars with tiny dots of royal icing.
Dust with icing sugar.

Royal Icing
Add egg white to a clean and dry TMX bowl and beat on speed 4 until stiff peaks form. Add icing mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time until all added in.

Stained Glass Gingerbread Decorations
Crush each colour of boiled lollies seperatly. Place in Thermomix and crush on speed 9 for 5 seconds. Remove to a smaller bowl.

Follow directions as per Gingerbread recipe above.

Cut Christmas Tree Shapes using a larger cutter, then using a smaller cutter, cut out small Christmas Tree shape or use small star shapes. Using a skewer or a sharp knife, remove dough from the smaller shape.
Using the blunt end of a skewer place a hole in the top of the biscuit to use to thread ribbon later.
Bake in oven as per instructions above for 7 minutes. Remove and fill windows with crushed boiled lollies of chosen colour and return to the oven for another 3-4 minutes. Leave on the tray for 10 minutes before transferring.
When cooled, thread with ribbon to decorate a Christmas Tree.

Other ideas:
You could use any Christmas shape for this, such as an angel with a heart cut out and filled with red candy.

General Tips

If using the gingerbread for decorating your Christmas tree use a drinking straw to punch a hole in an appropriate place before baking so a ribbon can be threaded through for hanging. Reform holes with straw while hot if needed.