nom nom nom Merry Xmas!

I usually bake Xmas cookies for my colleagues at work in December using the frozen Ikea cookie dough.   Unfortunately Ikea no longer sell this dough, but I found this recipe on Taste.com.au and it worked brilliantly!

I used spring-loaded cookie stamps to shape them. Snagged them at Matchbox in last year's post Xmas sales.  I had intentions to decorate them with icing pens and cachous (shiny edible ball things). But I got a bit lazy towards the end,

Gingerbread cookies

125g butter, softened
130g brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 egg
375g plain flour
1/2 tsp sodium bicarbonate
1 tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp of ground cinnamon

Cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in syrup and egg. Sift flour, bicarb, ginger and cinnamon over mixture and mix manually to combine.  Knead until smooth and cover in clingfilm and refrigerate for an hour.  Preheat oven to 180 Degrees Celsius (160 if fan forced).  Roll out between 2 sheets of baking paper until 5 mm thick and cut your shapes out.  Bake on baking paper for 15 to 20 minutes.  Cool for 5 minutes on the tray then transfer to a wire rack to cool before decorating (or devouring).