Aunt Kate is back with some gingerbread recipes to help you get in the mood this festive season.
You know the festive season has well and truly arrived (not that we need any reminding) when lots of weird, wonderful and sometimes questionable lights start appearing in gardens and mince pies fill the shelves.
Another thing synonymous with Christmas is gingerbread and Aunt Kate, the “original domestic goddess” who wrote recipes for the People’s Journal and the People’s Friend from the 1880s to the 1960s, features many recipes for gingerbread in her 1933 Baking Book.
One of these is a St Andrew’s Gingerbread, which is an easy recipe to follow and can be baked as a loaf, cake or as squares. The next one is perhaps one of the most popular treats at Christmas time – gingerbread men. Follow Aunt Kate’s recipe to learn how to make your own.
For more inspiration when it comes to Aunt Kate’s Kitchen, take a look at all of her previous recipes we’ve featured here.
St Andrew’s Gingerbread
Ingredients
- 1¼ lb (approx 565g) flour
- 2 or 3 eggs
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- ¼ lb (approx 115g) sugar
- 6 oz (approx 170g) butter
- 6 oz (approx 28g) golden syrup
Method
- Beat the sugar, butter and syrup to a cream and beat in the eggs, one at a time.
- Add the flour, mixed with ginger, till the mixture is thick enough to roll out, and bake in a flat, greased tin for 20 to 25 minutes between 180-190°C.
Gingerbread Men
Ingredients
- 2¾ cups (approx 415g) flour
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 egg
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 2/3 cups syrup
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup melted butter
Method
- Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and ginger together.
- Mix the sugar, syrup, egg and melted butter together, and add the dry ingredients to make a soft dough.
- Shape them into little men, pressing the arms, legs and heads well into the bodies, or use a cutter.
- You can make eyes, noses and mouths using currants.
- Place them on a greased baking sheet in a moderate oven (approx 180-190°C) for 12 minutes.
- Then decorate with icing.
More from this series…
Aunt Kate’s Kitchen: Easy fruit muffin recipes from the 1930s that will get you through today