GINGERBREAD CUT OUT COOKIES

Ingredients

• 375 g all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp all spice
• 80 g butter (softened) (dairy- free if needed)
• 170 g dark brown sugar (I've used muscovado)
• 1 large egg (room temeperature)
• 120 ml black treacle/ molasses
• 2 tsp vanilla essence

For the icing

• 180 g icing sugar
• 2 tbsp almond milk (or any milk of choice)

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and all the spices.
2. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add egg, treacle and vanilla essence and mix until combined. Gradually, stir in the dry ingredients until all ingredients are well mixed and smooth. Dough will be a little bit sticky at this point, but don't worry, it will come together after chilling it.
3. Divide dough in half, and wrap each half in cling film. Flatten the dough into a disc and refrigerate for at least couple of hours. If refrigerating overnight, bring the dough back to room temperature first before starting to roll it. 
4. Preheat the oven to 170 C. Place one half of the dough into floured surface. Cover your rolling pin with some flour and roll the dough into about 1/4 inch thick. Cut the cookies using your cookie cutter. Re-roll any leftover dough and repeat until you have used all of your dough.
5. Transfer cookies into a cookie sheet, leaving about 1 inch space between each cookie.
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Rotate your cookie tray half way through to ensure even bake. 
7. Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes and transfer to cooling rack to cool completely. 
8. To decorate: mix the icing sugar with milk until well combined. If icing feels too thick, add a very small amount of milk. If it feels too thin, add more icing sugar. Transfer the icing into a piping bag or icing bottle and decorate. You can also add some festive food colouring into your icing to get different colours. Use festive sprinkles if desired.

Recipe Notes

*You can use golden syrup instead of treacle. The colour of the dough will be much lighter comparing with treacle.

*The amount of cookies will vary, depending on the size of your cutters.

*Baking times will vary, depending on the size of your cutters.

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