GINGERBREAD REINDEER- A must....

Advent calendar at Not Just For Rabbits

“When are we getting our Christmas tree?”

 is the question we are bombarded with daily as soon as the 1^st door on the Advent calendar is opened.

Not wanting to peak too soon we normally wait until school breaks up, but, a few years ago I left it too late. I couldn’t find a tree for love nor money. Everywhere had sold out.

 I remember driving round with tearful little ones until we found a droopy tired old thing that just didn’t look right and was probably going to be thrown out it was so misshapen.

Christmas grotto!

It has never been forgotten.

Christmas trees from Scotland. 

To avoid a repeat disaster I got up early this weekend to get a tree on the understanding that we might not put it up for a few more days. My logic is I need to clean a bit before we put the tree up...sometime soon!!

Not Just For Rabbits Christmas tree felling!!

Teen V, who is slowly making progress from the glandular fever, had a little energy and decided to get us into the festive spirit by making ginger biscuits.

We have a tried and tested old favourite recipe from

 The Good Housekeeping COOKERY BOOK 

that I have had for years and is great. I have put a link to Amazon  here if anyone hasn't discovered these classic books. My battered hardback is out of print but they have several other classic cookery books that are good no nonsense recipes.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_18?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=good+housekeeping+cookery+book&sprefix=good+housekeeping+%2Cstripbooks%2C200

So if you are trying to ease gently into Christmas and want something easy for children, teens or yourself to make that is suitably festive I can recommend these.  

Here is the recipe..

Christmas trees, snowflake and reindeer gingerbread

FESTIVE GINGERBREAD BISCUITS

Makes about 40-50 biscuits depending on the size of the cutters!

Takes about 15 minutes to make and cut

Cooking time is under 10 minutes per batch.

INGREDIENTS:

12 oz plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

4 oz butter

6 oz light soft brown sugar

4 tbsp golden syrup

1 egg beaten

dough and cutters

WHAT TO DO:

1.     Preheat the oven to 190 degrees and line 2 or 3 baking sheets with baking paper.

2.     Sift the bicarbonate of soda, ginger and flour into a bowl. Rub in the butter until it looks like bread crumbs.

3.     Stir in the sugar then beat the egg and mix to form dough.

4.     Knead until smooth then divide into 2 pieces and roll out on a lightly floured work top until about 0.5 cm.

5.     Using the cutters of your choice press out lots of festive shapes, place on the prepared baking sheet then bake for 10 minutes.

6.     Remove from the oven and then cool on a rack. If you want to decorate with icing go for it.

festive gingerbread

Of course by the time I had sampled a few of these delicious biscuits there really was no time to get the tree up..so we have that excitement for another day! Yes!!!