Christmas 2021: Easy gingerbread recipe

Drenched in the spirit of Christmas already? Well, so are we. It is undeniably one of our most favourite times of the year. With the nip in the air, the lit-up shops and streets, and the gifts, can Christmas 2021 make up for the forgetful year that 2021 has largely been? Well, we don't know that yet. What we do know is that we are in a mood to go all out and indulge in all festive delicacies. Plum cakes, mulled wine, roasted chicken, Hasselback potatoes, the list is extensive. We have in fact also decided to bake our own gingerbread cookies this time.

Did you know that they are incredibly easy to make at home? And once you make them yourself, you would never want to purchase them from the stores at all.

Gingerbread and the shapes it takes have a long history. An early form of gingerbread can be traced to the ancient Greeks and Egyptians who used it for ceremonial purposes. Gingerbread made an appearance in Europe when 11th-century Crusaders brought back ginger from the Middle East for the aristocrats' cooks to experiment with. As ginger and other spices became more affordable to the masses, gingerbread caught on.

Also read | Winter soups to keep you warm

Recipe

To make this recipe, you would need maida, sugar, unsalted butter, egg, ginger powder, cinnamon powder, baking soda, nutmeg powder, vanilla essence, salt and that's about it.

Method:

1. Combine butter and sugar in a bowl.
2. Add eggs and vanilla essence and mix until the mixture is nice and fluffy. Do not overmix.
3. Now put a sieve on top of that bowl, and add the flour, ginger powder, cinnamon powder, nutmeg powder, baking soda and salt to the wet mix.
4. Make nice cookie dough, refrigerate the dough for 2 hours.
5. Flat out the dough, cut out cute shapes, and bake at 160 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Sounds like a cakewalk, doesn't it? Try this recipe at home and let us know how you liked it. Merry Christmas everybody!