MrsDangermouse
Guru
Does anyone else make their own edible Christmas decorations? The main two I do are gingerbread biscuits to hang on the tree, and dried orange slices. I love the traditional look, and they smell nice too.
The oranges are dead easy: just thinly slice a few oranges (they shrink as they dry so you're better using large ones) and spread on parchment or silicone paper to dry. You can either dry them in a low oven, or just leave them in the airing cupboard for a couple of weeks. Once dried I poke a little wire through and hang them on the tree - they look great when the light shines through them.
This is the the gingerbread recipe I use every year - the main thing is to make sure you roll them thin and bake them enough so they get fairly hard....otherwise they'll soften and fall off the tree!
Ingredients
250g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp mixed spice
75g unsalted butter
100g dark Muscavado sugar
75g golden syrup
1 medium free-range eggs
Method
- Cream the butter and the sugar
- Add the golden syrup and the egg and mix well
- Sieve the flour, spices and bicarbonate of soda together and fold the flour in to the creamed butter mix
- Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for a minimum of 12 hours
- Preheat the oven to 150°C
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper
- On a lightly floured surface roll the ginger biscuit dough out to about 5mm even thickness
- Use cutter to cut the shapes, arrange the biscuits on the prepared tray, leave at least 1cm gaps as they do swell
- Make holes for the ribbons (I use a drinking straw to do this)
- Bake for 15–18 minutes until golden but not too dark and cool on a rack
- Immediately re-enforce the holes as soon as they come out of the oven to make sure that the gaps are big enough for the ribbons before the cookies cool down too much (I use a chopstick)
- When cooled, decorate with royal icing or glitter or whatever else takes your fancy, thread ribbons through the holes and hang on the tree.
The oranges are dead easy: just thinly slice a few oranges (they shrink as they dry so you're better using large ones) and spread on parchment or silicone paper to dry. You can either dry them in a low oven, or just leave them in the airing cupboard for a couple of weeks. Once dried I poke a little wire through and hang them on the tree - they look great when the light shines through them.
This is the the gingerbread recipe I use every year - the main thing is to make sure you roll them thin and bake them enough so they get fairly hard....otherwise they'll soften and fall off the tree!
Ingredients
250g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp mixed spice
75g unsalted butter
100g dark Muscavado sugar
75g golden syrup
1 medium free-range eggs
Method
- Cream the butter and the sugar
- Add the golden syrup and the egg and mix well
- Sieve the flour, spices and bicarbonate of soda together and fold the flour in to the creamed butter mix
- Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for a minimum of 12 hours
- Preheat the oven to 150°C
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper
- On a lightly floured surface roll the ginger biscuit dough out to about 5mm even thickness
- Use cutter to cut the shapes, arrange the biscuits on the prepared tray, leave at least 1cm gaps as they do swell
- Make holes for the ribbons (I use a drinking straw to do this)
- Bake for 15–18 minutes until golden but not too dark and cool on a rack
- Immediately re-enforce the holes as soon as they come out of the oven to make sure that the gaps are big enough for the ribbons before the cookies cool down too much (I use a chopstick)
- When cooled, decorate with royal icing or glitter or whatever else takes your fancy, thread ribbons through the holes and hang on the tree.
