Gingerbread Christmas cookies

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar in a food processor. Add the eggs and molasses and process until combined. Add plain flour, baking powder and spices, and process until a smooth dough forms.  The dough will be soft and slightly sticky. Rest in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight.  The dough needs to be chilled and firmish to roll.

2. Preheat your oven to 180°C fan-forced or 200°C conventional. Line an oven tray with baking paper.

3. Halve the dough, leave the one half in the fridge. On a floured surface, roll out the other half to 1-1.5cm thick and cut out your cookies (reroll the scraps to use all the dough). Put shapes on prepared tray, leaving a couple of centimetres between each one, and bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden. They will still be a little soft when they come out of the oven so leave to cool on the tray. Repeat with the remaining chilled dough.

4. To make the icing, mix icing sugar and lemon juice until it reaches a thick honey-like consistency – adjust with more sugar or lemon juice if needed.

5. Fit a piping bag with a small nozzle, or snip a small piece off the end of a snap lock bag. Fill with icing and decorate cooled cookies with patterns and designs, decorating some with silver cachous. Or, loosen the icing further with lemon juice or water and dip cooled cookies into the icing. Leave iced cookies on a wire rack to set.