Our Nordic-style gingerbread Christmas trees make great gift ideas or lovely table decorations for your Christmas table.
Makes 6 trees
You will need:
For the gingerbread dough:
9 oz unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup golden syrup
2 large egg yolks
5 cups all purpose flour
3 teaspoons ground ginger
1⁄2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
For the royal icing:
1 egg white
11⁄2 to 13⁄4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
For the gingerbread dough:
9 oz unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup golden syrup
2 large egg yolks
5 cups all purpose flour
3 teaspoons ground ginger
1⁄2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
For the royal icing:
1 egg white
11⁄2 to 13⁄4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
- To make gingerbread dough, cut out paper triangle template. Line 4 baking trays with parchment paper.
- Make cookie dough: place butter and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer beat until light and creamy, about 6 minutes.
- Add golden syrup, egg yolks, sifted flour, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, and baking soda.
- Beat until mixture forms soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface and knead to a smooth dough.
- Divide dough into 2, flatten each into a disc shape, wrap in plastic wrap, and place into refrigerator for 10 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Working in batches, roll dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper to 1⁄8” thickness. Transfer rolled dough piece on the sheet of parchment paper to a tray and freeze for 15 minutes.
- Remove from freezer and slide onto workbench with its parchment paper.
- Place template onto dough and cut around using a ruler and sharp knife. Repeat until you have cut 12 triangles. Place onto a tray and return to freezer for 15 minutes or until firm.
- Remove from freezer then remove the dough trimmings from around the triangles edges. Reserve these trimmings and wrap in plastic and refrigerate.
- Place gingerbread triangle pieces onto prepared trays; allow a little room for spreading. Repeat with remaining dough until you have 24 triangles in total.
- Re-roll the reserved trimmings of dough and cut 6 small stars using a 2" star cookie cutter.
- Place star cookies onto a separate baking tray as they will take less time to cook.
- Bake gingerbread in preheated oven for 10–12 minutes or until golden.
- Allow gingerbread to cool completely on trays.
- To make the royal icing: place egg white into a medium mixing bowl; use a fork to beat until foamy.
- Gradually beat in icing sugar with a wooden spoon until you have a very stiff paste. Cover with a damp tea towel until ready to use.
- To assemble Christmas trees, think of the icing as glue (i.e. use plenty).
- Spoon royal icing into a plastic sandwich bag seal then use scissors to snip a small corner off. Pipe icing along the 2 long edges of a triangle.
- Hold triangle shortest side down (the edge without icing) on a work board, attach 2 gingerbread triangles to the iced edges (you may need to use a small bottle to help the gingerbread pieces stand up).
- Again, pipe icing along the sides of a 4th gingerbread triangle and attached to the gingerbread tree edges to form a pyramid shape.
- Repeat with remaining gingerbread pieces to make 6 Christmas trees.
- Allow to stand for 15 minutes or until icing sets.
- Pipe some icing onto the back of each star and attach stars to ginger- bread trees.
TIP:
Taking the extra time to freeze the dough between rolling helps make better-shaped gingerbread pieces.
Photography by
Recipes+styling+photography by China Squirrel
Made it? Tell us about it–