Gingerbread Xmas Trees

These gingerbread Christmas trees are both fun and easy to make, and, what's more, the kids will love them!
Hang them as part of decorations on your Xmas tree or give them away to friends and family as gifts :)

You can use any shaped cookie cutter you like to make these gingerbread cookies.

Makes 20

Ingredients

125g butter, at room temperature
½ cup (firmly packed) brown sugar
½ cup golden syrup
1 egg, separated
2¼ cups plain flour
1 tbs ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Plain flour, to dust
1 cup pure icing sugar, sifted
20 drops red liquid food colouring (adjust as required)
10 drops green liquid food colouring (adjust as required)
Smarties, to decorate

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 2 large baking trays.
2. Use an electric beater to beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl until pale and creamy. Add the golden syrup and egg yolk and beat until combined. Sift over the flour, ginger, mixed spice and soda then use a large spoon to fold and combine. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Press dough into a disc. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.
3. Meanwhile, place egg white in a clean, dry bowl. Use an electric beater to beat together the icing sugar and egg white until stiff peaks form. Divide icing among 2 bowls (3:1 ratio). Add green colouring to the bowl with more icing and stir until combined. Add red colouring to remaining bowl and stir until combined. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge.
4. After 30 minutes, bring dough to room temperature, then divide in two. Place the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper and roll out until about 4mm thick. Use a Xmas tree cutter to cut out shapes. Place on trays about 3cm apart to allow for spreading. Repeat with any excess dough.
5. Bake in oven for 7 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven. Transfer to a rack to cool. If you're making these as part of Christmas decorations, use a skewer to quickly make 5mm holes at the top of the warm biscuits to thread ribbon.
6. When biscuits have cooled completely, place prepared icings in small plastic/snap-lock bags or disposable piping bags, pushing icing into a corner, then cut a small hole in a corner of each bag. Pipe icing over gingerbread trees to decorate. Finish with Smarties. Thread ribbon in holes if using as Xmas decoration.
7. The biscuits will keep in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Decorating Tips

Allow biscuits to cool completely prior to decorating.

When you fill the bag with icing, use a spatula and be sure to fill it only halfway. It may help to fold the bag over a few times before filling it. Next, twist the end of the bag, removing any air bubbles and forcing the icing toward the tip. For most techniques, you’ll be holding the bag at a 45 or 90 degree angle. Your dominant hand exerts the pressure while your other hand simply guides the bag’s path on the biscuit.

If you accidentally over-bake your gingerbread cookies, place them in a sealed container layered with some fresh bread for a few hours to overnight (depends how hard your gingerbread are). The cookies will draw moisture from the bread making it nice and soft again. This trick also works if you have hard sugar.

Hainanese Chinese Rice

Hubby and I ate Hainanese Chicken the other day at a restaurant which inspired me to try and make this dish at home. The effort was worth the time in the kitchen. This recipe will yield a nicely poached chicken infused with ginger and rice cooked in freshly made chicken stock served with fresh ginger & shallot sauce. Hubby wanted to go back for seconds, but since I had only made enough for two, I should double the recipe for next time!

Serves 2

Steamed Chicken

2 Chicken Marylands
1 spring onion, roughly chopped
3cm piece ginger, grated
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
1 tbsp shao xing wine
2 tbsp light soy sauce
½ tsp sesame oil

Chicken Stock (makes approx. 3 cups)

2 chicken wings
2 chicken breasts, skin removed, roughly chopped
1 chicken carcass
1½ cup chicken stock
5cm piece ginger, thickly sliced
4 spring onions, green part only, roughly chopped

Rice

2 tbsp peanut oil
Skin from one chicken breast
Parson’s nose of chicken
2 garlic cloves, grated
2cm piece ginger, grated
1 cup jasmine rice

Chilli dipping sauce

2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 red banana chilli, roughly chopped
1-2 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp white vinegar
½ tsp peanut oil

Ginger and spring onion dipping sauce

¼ cup peanut oil
3cm piece ginger, finely shredded
2 spring onions, green part only, 3cm pieces, finely shredded

Method

1. For steamed chicken, fill a wok half way with water, place a wire rack on top, making sure water does not touch the rack. Place a shallow bowl with the chicken pieces, on top of the rack. Combine remaining ingredients in a bowl to make a marinade. Place marinade over and around the chicken. Cover and cook over medium heat for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Remove meat from the bones or chop up if desired.

2. For chicken stock, place all ingredients in a medium saucepan with just enough water to cover the chicken bones. Simmer over medium heat for 30-40 minutes. Strain, set aside stock.

3. For the rice, heat peanut oil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Add skin and parsans nose, cook for 3-4 minutes, remove skin and parsans nose from the pan. Add garlic and ginger, cook for 2-3 minutes or until slightly golden. Stir through rice to coat in oil, add 2 cups of chicken stock. Bring to the boil, cook partially covered 5 minutes or until holes start to appear in the surface of the rice. Cover completely with the lid and turn heat down as low as possible. Cook a further 10 minutes. Remove the pan completely from the heat and leave to stand, a further 10 minutes. Season to taste.

4. For chilli dipping sauce, pound garlic and chilli in a mortar and pestle until smooth. Transfer to a bowl, stir through remaining ingredients until well combined. Spoon into dipping dish, to serve.

5. For ginger and spring onion dipping sauce, heat peanut oil in a small saucepan over high heat, place remaining ingredients in a medium bowl and carefully pour over the oil. Spoon into dipping dish, to serve.

6. To serve, place chicken pieces/maryland on a plate, top with spring onion. Spoon rice on the side of plate. Serve with the chilli dipping sauce and ginger and spring onion sauce.


Notes & Tips

You'll need 1 whole chicken for this recipe.

Ginger Milk Custard

I was watching Episode 70 of MasterChef Australia the other day and saw that one of the contestants on the show, Poh had made a ginger milk custard as part of her cooking challenge. Realising that this dessert was actually something I had been shown how to make by my auntie in the past, hubby was quite keen on me making him some to taste :p

Ginger milk curd (Chinese: 薑汁撞奶), also known as ginger-juice milk curd or simply ginger milk, is a Chinese dessert. The main ingredients are ginger and milk.

It should taste like "tofufa" but with a nice kick of ginger. This tasty dessert is nice to eat at anytime of the day or night :)

So, here's my auntie's recipe for how to make Ginger Milk Custard:

Serves 1

Ingredients:

125ml milk
1 tsp sugar
1 - 2 tsp ginger juice
a few drops of white vinegar (to help curdle the milk)

Method:

1. Put ginger juice and vinegar into a mug.

2. Heat milk with sugar in a small saucepan and stir until sugar dissolves. Once the milk reaches a simmer (when little bubbles form on the surface), take saucepan off the heat IMMEDIATELY.

3. Stir for one to two minutes with a wooden spoon. (This is to lower the temperature).

4. Pour milk mixture into the mug containing the ginger juice and vinegar. Then, using another mug (of equal size), pour the liquid in and out of the two mugs 10 times. When completed, pour the milk into a serving bowl and leave it to set. Do not disturb the mixture for around 10 minutes.

5. Once mixture has curdled, serve it warm. (Texture should be very soft, kinda like a “tofu-fa” )

Notes and tips:

To get ginger juice, you need to firstly grate the ginger (without the skin) and after that squeeze the grated ginger through a fine cloth or filter to get it's juice. Alternatively, grate the ginger into a bowl and then use the back of a spoon to press the grated ginger against the bowl to squeeze the juice out.

For a stronger ginger taste, I would recommend adding 2 teaspoons of ginger juice to this dish