Recipe: Gingerbread Squirrels (with Faithful Hound Golden Syrup)

Sam and I recently put on a buffet for 60 people at our daughter’s Christening which took place at the end of May. Rather than outsource the buffet to a catering company, I decided to give it a go myself, so on the Saturday morning I arose early for a full day of baking. I made three types of scones, brownies, blondies, butterfly buns (butterscotch ones and salted caramel ones), blueberry muffins and gingerbread. Out of everything I prepared for the Christening, it was my gingerbread that got the best feedback, so I thought I’d share the recipe on here.

I used Faithful Hound Golden Syrup for the gingerbread, which is now available in our shop for £6 per pound of honey. It comes in a reusable metal tin which has been hand stamped by the owner of Faithful Hound; a friend of ours and a Yorkshire farmer’s lad. Of course, you can use any golden syrup for the recipe though.

I multiplied the below ingredients by two and this made more than enough gingerbread for 60 people. There was even some left over at the end of the day. In total, I made around 40 gingerbread biscuits, so the below ingredients should make about 20 depending on your cutter size.

I made red squirrels, teapots and Alice in Wonderland inspired “eat me” gingerbread biscuits.

Ingredients

  • 12 oz of plain flour (approx. 350g)
  • 1 level tsp of bicarbonate of soda
  • 2 level tsps of ground ginger
  • 4 oz of butter (approx. 100g)
  • 6 oz of light muscovado sugar (approx. 175g)
  • 4 tbsps of Faithful Hound Golden Syrup
  • 1 large egg, beaten

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 190°C/Fan 170°C.

Grease your baking tray/s or line them with baking paper.

Put the plain flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger into a bowl. Add the butter and rub it all together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Next, add the sugar and stir it all together.

Add the golden syrup and the egg and mix everything together until you form a smooth dough. Knead the mixture with your hands until your form a dough that you can pick up and place on your work surface.

Roll out the mixture on your work surface to a thickness of about half a cm (quarter of an inch). Use your cutter to cut out your desired shapes and then place the shapes on your baking tray.

Bake your biscuits in the oven for approximately 10-12 minutes. Your biscuits will have a slightly darker shade once they are ready.

Allow to cool before decorating.

To decorate mine, I used the same cutters to cut out icing which I then stuck onto the gingerbread biscuits by brushing a little water on the back of the icing. I added eyes on the squirrels and stamped some letters into the teapots and circles.

If you are interested in making squirrels too, I got my squirrel cutter from Lakeland for £1.99.

 

We hope you enjoyed this recipe. Don’t forget to send us some pictures if you make your own gingerbread. Happy baking!