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The perfect Gingerbread Men recipe
In twenty minutes you can have gorgeous, gooey centered biscuits. Perfect for the spontaneous guest with kids.
At two and a half years of age Pickles is now like a little adult. It has happened so darn quick!! Only a few months ago she was still only speaking small sentences. Two months ago she was learning about happy, sad and angry and now she has included scared, hurt and understands the difference in her choices. All of this in such a short space of time…and now, we are cooking together! I have waited for this since rubbing her little feet in my belly and her favourite cooking…Gingerbread men and they are scrummy for adults too.
They are gooey in the middle and crunchy on the outside, just like a biscuit should be. And here’s the recipe…
It takes just 20 minutes before you have gorgeous biscuits!
Gingerbread Men
125g (4 oz) butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar (you can use light brown sugar for a lighter flavour)
1/2 cup golden syrup
2 1/2 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
Method:
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees c
Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat with electric beaters or use the paddle in your Kitchenaid, beat until light and creamy
Add the golden syrup, flour, ginger and bicarb and mix to form a smooth dough
Refrigerate for 15 – 20 mins until slightly hard
Roll out the dough between sheets of non-stick paper to about 4mm thick and cut out shapes. If you don’t have a gingerbread man cutter any shape will do such as stars, hearts or circles.
If your in a rush and want to make biscuits for guests coming around, particularly those with little ones, just roll up the dough into a thick sausage (about the thickness of a golf ball) and after refrigerating, cut the sausage shape into round slices.
Bake for 8 – 10 minutes or until golden brown and cool on a tray.
You can of course ice them if you like however they are gorgeous without it and for toddlers it’s a healthier option.
Read MoreTeapigs Herbies go bananas!
The peppermint, the Chamomile, a Darjeeling Earl Grey and a funny little green called Mao Feng. That was what was next on my list to taste from Teapigs.
So what is the verdict?
Firstly, I want to ask, have you ever drunk herbal tea? I have been drinking Rosehip and Peppermint tea for years. I discovered their therapeutic benefits (known for their benefit on the tummy and the digestive system) some years ago. They were my saviors when I suffered IBS and whenever I overindulged on a great night out. But as for Chamomile, well, those little yellow flowers only ever sat in my teacup when I was desperate for calming, which prior to being a Mummy wasn’t really that often. Chamomile tea always seemed to go down with a peg on my nose and a wince on my face. However, venturing further outside those teas was not my gig, until about 3 or 4 years ago.
Venturing into some of the oddly named teas like Oolong or even the fruitier kinds of tea never appealed to me until I drank myself sick of Rooibos tea and was fed up with drinking 5 cups of it a day. I was soooo desperate for variation in my tea diet. So, I ventured forth and fell in love with loose leaf teas with all sorts of herbs in them, like lemongrass and ginger to licorice and mint. They were appetising but hard to find in the supermarkets. You could of course buy loads of different varieties of teas in the supermarkets but the majority of them were fruit blends or infusions, meaning, not 100% tea leaf. This therefore put me off venturing too far and after drinking only a couple of the fruity kinds I refused to drink any more thanks to the deluge left on the back of my throat after each cup. It’s kind of like a thick, horrible taste at the back of your mouth….charming, it is not.
But…
Enter Teapigs and what I am happy to call the ‘Herby goes Bananas’ blends. There are so many to choose from. Thus far the Peppermint proved very ‘minty’ and soothed my tummy immediately after overindulging at a friends dinner party. The Chamomile has never been a favourite as it always tends to be bitter, harsh on the tongue, however I was pleasantly surprised by Teapigs version, it was smooth and had none of the ‘bite’ Chamomile tends to have. And the green…
Mao Feng. Cool name isn’t it? It’s name makes me think of a little Chinese Guru kneeling in front of me, teaching me, guiding me into a meditation each time I drink it. The tea itself has that same effect when you drink it. You somehow feel like you are meditating and cleansing your body each time you drink it and it makes me ‘feel sooooooo good’.
Then, my ultimate favourite…The Darjeerling Earl Grey. Now, I am a bit of a connoisseur when it comes to Grey tea. I know my Earls’ and my Lady’s very well. Each variety has its own particular royalty but I really, really love Teapigs Grey! It is smooth and the citrusy taste of Bergamot dances in your mouth, it is not overpowering either, it is just right and so far it is most definitely my favourite Teapig!
Mmmmmmmm, another cup? Yes please!
So what’s next? Coming soon to a teapot near me are some beautifully exotic sounding teas like Chai (ohh I do love my Chai) and the following:
Winter red tea
Lemon and ginger tea
Pure lemongrass tea
Choc flake
and the Matcha Green (this will be good as I am not a Green fan, will it convert me? Hmmm.)
Will Teapigs end up as Britains next best cuppa?
Stay tuned for more verdict.
P.S. If you haven’t read how the project of finding Britain’s next best cuppa tea started…read it here
Thanks for enjoying a cup with me!
Read MoreMotherless daughter – my true disability.
Ten years after my mum passed away from cancer, the second biggest thing in my life happened.
Pickles was born.
As a motherless daughter I knew, just knew, that losing Mum would hit me like a speedway train when I had a baby. After she died I told myself that ‘that was it…there was no way I was going to have children without my mum’, because Mum always said “you will be bed ridden for your pregnancy” and “you are going to need all the help you can when you have a baby’. So losing the most important person, my support network, at just 25 years of age shocked me into thinking there was no way I would cope and I convinced myself that I did not want children. ‘Noooo way’. Without my Mum how the hell would I manage?
Nine years later I was pregnant and about to do what I feared the most.
You see, I have a disability. If you saw me standing in a room, you would think I was joking. If you heard me on the phone, you would think I was joking. It’s not until you see me walk that you would realise I do truly have a disability. Its one of those muscular disabilities that Doctors give a ‘really special name’, you know the ones that sound like E.T. made it up.
So how the hell was I going to get through pregnancy especially as a Motherless daughter? I was terrified, I was so terrified.
I had been told from a young age that ‘having children’ was going to be difficult for me. Pregnancy was made out to be a horrible, bed ridden existence for 9 months and parenting…well. That was going to be a lot harder. I guess people expected that because my disability is muscular, my body wouldn’t cope with the physical strain from both pregnancy and motherhood. But my god, I have seen women who are way less able than me become parents, very capable, happy parents.
But I was still terrified!
Thanks to the stories of what it was going to be like for me as a parent, I had a very old belief that I was about to enter some kind of hell. Isn’t it funny how little stories told by parents can become a belief, one so ingrained in your pattern of thinking that fear begins to rule your thoughts. I know Mum was just protecting me, letting me know she would be there for me, warning me that it wouldn’t be easy, but that it’s OK, she’s there for me. She never, in her worst nightmares ever thought she would never be here to share the journey with me. However, the universe decided to tear her away from me way. And the belief, that turned into a sentence for me. One I was not prepared to go through without my Mum.
But, ten years after losing Mum, and 9 months of blissful pregnancy (no sickness, no tiredness and NOOOOOO bed ridden days at all thanks to Bowen Therapy), this motherless daughter became Mummy to a little cherub, a girly cherub, a beautiful, tiny 6lb cherub. And it was then that I realised my true disability.
My disability is not a muscular condition that affects my physical capabilities. My disability is not having my Mum around so that she can she the wonderful job her daughter is doing and to share in Pickles life, the beautiful little person that is her grandaughter!
Little did I know ten years ago that I would become a Mummy. One that does cope. One whose life is so far away from the beliefs that I had, that it would turn my life into something so incredibly beautiful, even as a Motherless Mummy.
The biggest surprise in my story is how much I love being a Mum and how, even with a physical disability, it has become the most successful time of my life.
I love you Mum!
Love always
Pickles and Me
xxxx
blogging can be hard somedays
The days have drawn so close together and now I have a fuzzy blur roaming around in my head all day. I have not blogged in so long as I have been so disheartened by everything in life. To say that life as a Mum can be lonely is an understatement..especially when your family are over 8000 miles away and especially as a motherless daughter. I just prolong the days sometimes, waiting for the bedtime hour to begin so I can rest my weary head, my aching body. This is the side to being a mum that I never expected. This is the side I battle with each day, trying to push through it to ensure I give everything I can to Pickles.
Wanting to share this has been hard too. Some days are painfully distracted with aching back and neck but most days are extravagant in the gifts that Pickles gives me. Take our recent milestone…Potty training.
Why was I dreading it? Why did I prolong it for so long and what on earth possessed me to spontaneously do it?
The answers don’t really matter as she aced it, and within a week was on the potty without accidents…fast forward 5 weeks and we are completely dry and visiting the toilet. All potty’s out the window!! Yeyyyyyyyy. This is where exhaustion finally gets a rest! With a disability it makes the physical side of being a parent hard some days and emptying a potty every hour was becoming the slash in my tyres. But my ghostly coloured legs kept on going and even managed a chase or two most days, albeit it a short one.
Universe, please give me the strength to keep on marching through the challenges of parenting for it is the results it gives, the creation of this little person that would have me do it again, and again, and again!
Read MoreDo they have to go to Nursery?
I woke up this morning, after a heavy nights sleep tossing and turning and stressing over the fact that I MUST start looking into nurseries for Pickles, desperate for a CHAI tea. Opening my last box of NERADA Chai I dwelled on the fact that I have 19 bags left which happily translates into 19 days before I run out.
Nerada is an Australian Organic tea and as a tea addict my tastebuds know which Chai they like. I haven’t found an equally satisfying Chai here in the UK (any suggestions) so I am going to have to start bribing my family again to send me some more before my 19 day eclipse is up.
Sipping the delicious bergamot flavoured brown liquid, I contemplated on days without Pickles. And I hated it.
I don’t want to send her to nursery in December (I know, its ages away right?). The thought of not having her with me all day everyday…just doesn’t sit right.
Do we have to send them? Do I have to let her go now? I know she would love it. She is a social butterfly and a natural leader, unlike her Mummy who is the absolute opposite. I know nursery will give her more creative stimulation, more social stimulation than chilaxing with Mummy but my girly…I’m not ready!!!!!!!!!!
I look down and notice my Chai is almost gone. Oh tea of teas, will you be my friend when Pickles goes to nursery. Will you pep me up each morning and give me a smile, will you fill the gap and keep me warm? ‘Woah is me’ I sighed. Well, these are things we have to do right?
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