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Andrew MacKenzie's gingerbread safari recipe

Andrew MacKenzie's gingerbread safari recipe

17 ratings

This fun gingerbread recipe by Andrew MacKenzie is a great way to get kids involved in baking. This safari requires animal cookie cutters, but if you want to make good old-fashioned gingerbread men instead, go ahead! See method

  • Serves 20
  • 60mins cooking and preparation time, plus 60mins chilling time
  • 152 calories / serving
  • Vegetarian

Ingredients

For the cookie dough

  • 350g (12oz) plain flour
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate soda
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 tsp ground ginger
  • 17g (3/4oz) soft brown sugar
  • 125g butter, softened
  • 60ml (4 tbsp) golden syrup
  • 1 egg

For the cookie frosting

  • 125g icing sugar
  • 1½ tbsp milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • red food colouring
  • green food colouring
  • yellow food colouring
  • blue food colouring

Each serving contains

  • Energy

    675kj
    152kcal     8%

  • Fat

    6g 9%

  • Saturates

    3g 17%

  • Sugars

    10g 11%

  • Salt

    0.3g 5%

of the reference intake
Carbohydrate 22.4g Protein 2.1g Fibre 0.7g

Method

  1. Sift the dry ingredients for the cookie dough into a food processor and pulse a few times to combine.
  2. Add the softened butter to the mixture and continue to pulse until breadcrumbs are formed, then transfer to a large mixing bowl.
  3. Heat the golden syrup in a pan until runny and add to the mixing bowl. Add the egg and mix together to form a smooth dough.
  4. Pat the dough into a ball and squish down slightly. Wrap in cling film and keep in the fridge for 1 hour.
  5. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4, 180°C, fan 160°C.
  6. Flour the rolling pin and a clean, dry surface. As evenly as possible, roll out the gingerbread dough to 1/2cm thick.
  7. Grab your little helpers and get them to create the cookies using animal-shaped cutters. They will love seeing their safari animals start to form!
  8. Pop in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the gingerbread animals are golden-brown, then remove and allow to cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack.
  9. While the gingerbread are cooling, prepare the icing. Mix together the icing sugar, vanilla and milk to form a thick paste. Add a little more icing sugar if the mixture isn’t thick enough.
  10. Spoon into 4 separate bowls and add a different food colouring to each bowl, adjusting the quantity depending on how bright you want the icing to be.
  11. Get the kids to decorate the gingerbread creatures as they wish. In addition to icing, you could also add silver balls, sweets or dried fruit - it all adds to the fun!

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