How to make gingerbread christmas tree cookies

Preheat the oven to 180•C or 350•F. First, mix together the baking soda, ginger and cinnamon.

Then stir in the flour.

Once the flour is thoroughly combined, mix in the butter until the mixture resembles the texture of breadcrumbs.

Stir in the sugar.

Then lightly beat the egg and golden syrup together in a separate bowl. Put the spoon in hot water before measuring out the golden syrup to make it easier to pour.

Add the egg-syrup mixture to the flour mixture and beat together.

Continue mixing until the dough starts to come together

Tip the mixture out onto cling film and knead briefly to bring it all together.

Roll it into a ball, cover with cling film and refrigerate for around half an hour, the longer the better!

While the dough is chilling, make the royal icing. Whisk the sugar and egg whites with literally 1 drop of water.

The result should be a very, very thick white icing. Transfer to a bowl, cover with cling film and refrigerate. We will use it later.

When the dough has chilled, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out until it is around 0.3 cm thick.

Using a Christmas Tree cookie cutter, cut out the shapes and place them on a lined baking tray.

Bearing in mind they will spread, fill up the baking tray and bake for around 10 minutes, until they are brown and although soft, they will harden when they are out. It does depend on your oven.

Allow them to cool for 5 minutes on the baking tray before transferring them to a wire rack to cool properly. They'll have spread but that's okay! Repeat as often as needed to bake all of them.

When the cookies have fully cooled, colour about half the icing green, but keep it very thick, if needed add 1 drop of water just to make it pipeable.

Pipe a thick line all around the cookie.

Then water down the icing, little at a time, until it flows easily, but not as thin as water. Then 'fill in' the outlined shape, making sure the icing doesn't spill over the barriers of thick icing.

Put the finished cookies in a very low oven for 15 minutes, for the icing to harden.

Using a quarter of the remaining icing, colour it brown and pipe it on as the base of the tree.

Divide the remaining icing into any colours you want for baubles and pipe it on. I did a star at the top of each tree as well.

You can decorate these any way you want to, for any occasion. I hope the recipe works out for you and feel free to ask me any questions you might have. Happy Baking! 😊