Gingerbread men (or gingernuts)

[eyebrowofdoom]

Recipe as written:

• 125g / 4 oz butter or margarine
• 2 TB golden syrup 
• 185g / 6 oz sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 315g / 10 oz self raising flour
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground ginger

Grease oven tray. Melt butter and golden syrup in a saucepan, then add the sugar and the egg. Lastly, add the sifted flour, salt and ginger. Mix well. For gingernuts, drop in teaspoonfuls on to tray. For gingerbread men, mould into shape or use cutter, and make faces with currants and peel. Bake at 325 F / 160 C until a delicate golden brown, approx 10-12 mins.

My notes:

• I understand dark corn syrup is a substitute for golden syrup although NB these notes: http://www.foodsubs.com/Syrups.html
• NB Australian TB = 4 tsp. Plus also I tend to be really aggressive with the golden syrup - using massively heaped tablespoons.
• I have always used salted butter in this, even though the recipe includes salt, and have enjoyed the results. Recipe probably intends it to be unsalted. Consult your own taste.
• It’s also delicious to add extra spices such as cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice etc.
• Method: I follow the method up till the egg, then I put the flour etc in a mixing bowl instead and pour the contents of the saucepan over it.
• To make individual gingernuts, I prefer to roll them into little golf or ping-pong balls with wet hands, then squash them on the tray with a fork. I have also rolled them out and cut out animal cookies from the dough before.
• For me, 12 mins (in my rented flat’s fairly crap oven) leaves the individual gingernuts barely coloured and soft/chewy in the middle. If you like a fairly crisp gingernut, keep baking longer until you see some browning. This advice may be wrong if you have a decent oven or you have rolled them out thinly.

[ETA for minor clarification]

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