Roll on Christmas

So it has started. Even though we're not "allowed" to play Christmas music at home before the 1st of December, Little Miss M. and I did exactly this today. How else can you get into the spirit when baking gingerbread? The dough was mixed yesterday evening and this afternoon we spent a couple of hours singing and baking. 

It may have looked fairly tidy to start with but it didn't take long before the work top turned into a winter wonderland.

Having accumulated a good amount of shapes we made pigs, hearts, men, women, pixies, squirrels to name but a few. Having a big kitchen with good size work tops was heaven as we could really spread out and not have to move things around all the time.

For the last few years I've had problems with the gingerbread not going hard. I've had to experiment with degrees and timing and this year they started off staying soft so I had to put them in for quite a bit longer at a lower temperature to avoid them burning. It worked out alright in the end. Phew. 

We made closer to 300 gingerbreads in 17 different shapes. That'll last us to Christmas and a little beyond I hope. 

They're now stored in the usual tins ready to be eaten. I think we'll have a few tomorrow with some mulled wine as it's the first of advent. Mmm, I can't wait!

Mrs. M.