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Natasha Martins

Santa Gingerbreads

Updated: Jan 25, 2023

These little gingerbread Santas certainly help me get into the festive spirit! 🎄🎅

The gingerbread base is delicious, soft and packed with warm flavours. I had a gingerbread Santa cookie cutter but you can use any gingerbread man or festive cookie cutters for this recipe and decorate them as you please. This was my first time using royal icing and I hope to get the proper tools and more practice in the future. But, for this very reason, this is a beginner and kid friendly recipe. If I can do it so can all of you, my lovely readers.



Makes 20-23 Santas| Total time: 2 hours (+3 hours or overnight chilling)| Medium Difficulty


Ingredients (gingerbread):

  • 150g unsalted butter, softened

  • 150g light soft brown sugar

  • 150ml treacle (can be substituted for molasses or 120g dark soft brown sugar)

  • 1 large egg

  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

  • 440g plain flour

  • 1 tsp baking soda

  • 1/2 tsp salt

Spices:

  • 1 tbsp cinnamon

  • 1 tbsp ground ginger

  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg

  • 1/2 tsp ground allspice

  • 1/2 teaspoon ground clove

Method (gingerbread):

  1. In a large bowl sift in the plain flour, baking soda, salt and all of the spices.

  2. Add the butter into a separate bowl and beat using an electric mixer (stand mix or hand-held) on a medium speed for 2 minutes, until creamy and pale.

  3. Next, add the sugar, treacle and vanilla to the butter bowl and beat for 2 more minutes. The mixture should be smooth.

  4. Beat in the egg. At this point, the mixture may separate but continue mixing and scrape down the edges of the bowl.

  5. Once the wet ingredients are smooth and creamy, slowly add them to the sifted dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly with the electric mixer between each addition.

  6. Towards the end, you may need to use your hands or a wooden spoon as the dough will be very thick.

  7. Place the ball of gingerbread dough onto a large piece of clingfilm. Wrap the dough tightly and store in the fridge to chill

  8. You should chill the dough for a minimum of 3-4 hours, preferably overnight.

  9. Once the dough is chilled, preheat the oven to 180°C fan and place greaseproof baking parchment onto 2 baking trays

  10. Remove the gingerbread dough from the fridge. Split it in half. Place 1 half back into the fridge and work with the remaining dough.

  11. Add plain flour to a surface, your hands and a rolling pin. Gently roll out the gingerbread dough, like a pizza, until it is about 0.5cm thick. Using gingerbread cutters, cut the dough into the shapes and add them onto the lined baking trays (at least 2cm apart).

  12. Continue re-rolling the dough until you have used it all to cut out the gingerbread Santa shapes.

  13. Bake the gingerbread for approximately 8-9 minutes (9-11 minutes if you prefer them to be slightly crunchier). You will need to bake the cookies in multiple batches.

  14. When baked, the cookies should look slightly golden brown, but if you want them softer the colour will be paler.

  15. Once baked, place the gingerbreads onto a cooling rack and let them completely cool before decorating.

  16. Repeat the steps for the remaining half of the dough that is chilling in your fridge.

Ingredients (icing):

  • 3tsp honey

  • 225g of icing sugar

  • 3 tsp warm water

  • 1 tsp of food colouring: red, black and white

  • M&Ms, sweets and sprinkles for extra decoration (bauble of Santa's hat and belt)

  • 3 ramekins and skewers as decorating tools (if you don't have professional ones like me!)

Ingredients (icing):

  1. Add 1tsp honey, 75g icing sugar and 1 tsp of different food colour into each of the 3 ramekins. Next, very slowly mix in1/2tsp of warm water to each ramekin, one at a time. Adding the water in these small increments will allow you to get the perfect consistency.

  2. The royal icing should be able to spread but will stay in place and not run when you drop it onto a plate.

  3. To decorate, start with the base colour, red. Onto Santa's main body add a small amount of red icing and gently spread with the skewer.

  4. Complete 1 colour for all Santa gingerbreads and allow to set before moving onto a different colour. This will prevent your colours running into one another.

  5. For the fur lining, use the white icing and for the belt, shoes and other elements use black icing. Add sprinkles and sweets for more fun decoration.

  6. Make sure to let the completed cookies set for about 15-20 minutes in the fridge. Then take out, let the cookies come back to room temperature and serve.


When decorating, make sure just to use what you have at home and get creative. This is not a professional recipe and is about getting everyone involved and getting into the Christmas spirit.

Hope you enjoy making these as much as I did! They take some time, but the decorating process is so therapeutic and worth it!!


Enjoy and happy holidays ❄️☃️



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