Thermomix gingerbread

I have made about four different batches of gingerbread in the last month, Christmas cut outs for teachers and ninja bread men for Sifu at Kung Fu.

Good gingerbread needs to be easy to work with, not get tough if the kids use it as playdough, not be too crumbly when packaged and be delicious at the end.

This is the winner hands down

Put in the Thermomix bowl:

125g butter
75 g dark brown sugar
175g golden syrup

Heat for 4 minutes at 50 degrees, speed 1

Add dry ingredients to bowl

450g plain flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon bicarb soda

Top with 1 egg beaten lightly with a fork in a cup
1 teaspoon vanilla paste

Mix 10 seconds on speed 6, push down sides, .mix a further 10 seconds, push down sides mix 5 seconds

Knead 30 seconds on interval setting

Turn out onto floured board. Knead lightly, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes,
Roll out on floured board or silicon mat and cut into shape

I have a great selection of cutters - look after your cutters they are so precious. If you wash them while your biscuits bake you can pop them in the cooling oven to make sure they dry out properly.

Bake 10-12 minutes until they are just starting to change colour. Take out and cool on racks.

You can decorate with edible ball bearings before they go in the oven or royal icing (1 egg white and 1 cup icing sugar) after they come out

Give to teachers, friends, neighbours and the postman

Merry Christmas everyone!

Nut free Thermomix Rocky Road

Well I have had a hectic few weeks - I have taken lots of photos - I just need some time to go through them and plan to blog them! This week I made the annual gifts for the Kid's teachers.
Every year I have had a drama chasing around three separate supermarkets to get the ingredients for my Ultimate White Christmas so I decided this year to do Rocky Road, Shortbread Stars, Rum balls and Snickerdoodles. I send them in for the class teacher and all the incidental staff too - like the librarian and the music and sports teachers.

all wrapped and ready to deliver

The Rocky Road was inspired by someone kind I work with who sent a teeny sample of Rocky Road all the way from NSW for me during a project we were working on this year. So thanks - you know who you are.

The original recipe I based mine on called for clinkers. I have had a week trekking around Townsville and have not found them anywhere.  One shop had an empty hook labelled clinkers. Grrr. So the first batch was made with honeycomb instead.

My recipe is:

2 x 250g bags chocolate Cadbury melts

300g honeycomb (cut into 4 pieces) or 2 bags clinkers (cut in half)

180g raspberries (sweets not fruit)(cut in half)

100g baby marshmallows

Please use other brands of chocolate than Nestle - for information about the boycott click here I love that Cadbury now offers a choice of chips, buttons or bars of cooking chocolate in white, milk or dark. So I had two bags of milk melts.

Melt chocolate in TM bowl for 5 minutes temp 50 speed 1 (You can cut the sweets up while the chocolate melts)

Scrape down edges and melt for a further 1 1/2 minutes.

Change speed to reverse speed soft and add clinkers(or honeycomb) raspberries and marshmallows, in assorted handfuls. Let the machine do the mixing.

 Once combined turn into a lamington tray. I used a CT silicon mold so the turning out was a dream! If I was using a rigid tray I would definitely line it.

Spread it evenly and refrigerate to set

Turn out and cut into nice big slabs when set. I used gift bags and a bit of sparkle 

Don't forget to enlist the help of an assistant in the cleaning up!

I made a second batch today with fake clinkers (at last!) and the family is eagerly waiting to see how it comes out (the rest was earmarked for gifting and was not to be sampled on pain of death - or worse!)

It's that time of year again

Did you think I had fallen off the perch? Things have been a tad chaotic in the monkeyhouse and we have been eating lots of alfresco meals - steak and salads, many of which I have already posted.

This week I need to decide what I am making for the annual teacher gifts - here is a picture of last year's assembly line

How do other parents thank their child's teacher? I make for the class teacher, music teacher, LOTE teacher, sports teacher and the librarian

Are you a teacher? What is the nicest gift you have received?