Allergy-friendly Christmas gingerbread men recipe

Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat…and it’s time to bake our FreeFrom gingerbread men! Baking gingerbread men is the perfect way to bond with your child and a brilliant way to celebrate Christmas. They make great presents too!

As well as being a sweet festive treat, this FreeFrom gingerbread men recipe is allergy-friendly and gluten-free. It’s also perfect to make with your kids as it is very easy to follow. Share your delicious creations with your family and friends – or keep them all to yourself. Whatever you do, have fun making them!

Makes: Approx. 24 gingerbread men

Preparation and cooking time: 90 minutes (including 30 minutes resting time and 10 minutes in the oven)

Ingredients

• 250g of plain or gluten-free flour
• 1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
• 100g dairy/soya-free margarine
• 1 teaspoon of ginger
• 2 tablespoons of golden syrup (slightly more if you are using gluten-free flour)
• 100g soft brown sugar
• Edible decorations – coloured icing, gluten/dairy-free sweets, hundreds and thousands, silver balls, currants…anything you like!
• Gingerbread man cutters

Method

1. Line two baking trays with baking parchment or silicon sheets (or grease them with margarine).
2. Rub the margarine into the flour to make a fine breadcrumb-like texture.
3. Evenly mix in the ginger and brown sugar and spoon in the golden syrup until a soft dough is created. For the low mess option pop all the ingredients into a food processor and whizz for 30 seconds and then tip the mixture into a bowl and knead the dough into a ball, adding extra golden syrup as necessary.
4. Put the dough on a plate, cover in cling film and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
5. Next, lightly flour the work surface and roll out or press the dough until it is 1cm thick. Cut out your gingerbread men using a biscuit cutter, then place them, spaced out, onto the baking sheets.
6. Bake the gingerbread men for 10 minutes until firm and do not let them brown.
7. Take out the trays and leave to cool for 10 minutes. If you have greased the baking trays rather than lining them, gently separate the gingerbread men from the tray with a palette knife or fish slice a couple of minutes after taking them out of the oven.

These simple Christmas biscuits not only taste amazing and fill the kitchen with a lovely smell but are also really easy to make, making them an easy recipe for the little ones in the family too.

Now the exciting part! Get the kids together to decorate your gingerbread men. Why not make it a fun competition to see who can create the best gingerbread man?

Have fun!

Here at ScratchSleeves, we don’t just share our experiences of bringing up an eczema child and favourite allergy-friendly recipes, we also manufacture and sell our unique stay-on scratch mitts and PJs for itchy babies, toddlers and children. We now stock sizes from 0-adult years in a range of colours. Visit our webshop for more information.