The Best Vegan Gingerbread People
These gorgeous vegan gingerbread people have a fantastic crunch, and are full of those warm Christmasy-gingerbread spices. You can make them into any shapes, and enjoy any day of the year - they don't just have to be gingerbread people!
Equipment
- Mixing Bowl
- Baking Tray
- Rolling Pin
- piping bag with nozzle (or food bag with corner cut out)
Ingredients
For the Gingerbread People
- 60 g oil / vegan butter (¼ cup)
- 175 g self-raising flour (1 ⅓ cup)
- 60 g brown sugar (¼ cup)
- 1 tsp salt
- 100 g golden syrup (⅓ cup)
- ¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 3 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
For the Decoration
- 300 g icing sugar / powdered sugar (2 cups)
- 2-4 tbsp water
- decoration of choice e.g. edible silver balls (double-check they are vegan!), vegan chocolate buttons
Instructions
For the Gingerbread People
- Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 4.
- Rub the oil / butter together with the flour until it becomes like breadcrumbs.
- Stir in the sugar and the salt.
- Warm the golden syrup through in a pan, then stir in the bicarbonate of soda and the spices (you can use less spice if making for kids).
- Add the syrup to the flour, sugar and oil / butter mixture. Combine until you have a soft, smooth dough ball.
- Roll out the dough on a clean, floured surface.
- Using a gingerbread-person shaped cookie cutter (or any shape you want), cut out as many people as you can. Then re-roll the remaining dough so you can cut out more gingerbread people.
- Place all gingerbread people on a lined baking tray (you may need more than one tray).
- Put in the oven for 15 mins. When they come out they’ll be a little soft. Let them harden for at least 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
To Decorate the Gingerbread People
- Sift the icing sugar / powdered sugar into a big mixing bowl.
- Add the water one drop at a time and mix in. When you have something that’s the consistency of toothpaste, don’t add any more water. If you get a consistency that’s too runny, then add in more icing sugar / powdered sugar.
- Put the icing in a piping bag (or just a plastic food bag with a small corner cut off) and pipe eyes, buttons and ‘clothing’ on to the gingerbread people.
- While the icing is still wet (act quickly as it hardens fast) stick on any decorations. Leave to dry.
- Hold a gingerbread gang party!!!