Day of the Dead gingerbread biscuits

Name: Day of the Dead gingerbread biscuits
Ingredients: 100 g unsalted butter; 50 g unrefined light muscovado sugar; 5 tbsp golden syrup; 225 g plain white flour; 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda; 2 tsp ground ginger; 200 g royal icing sugar; 60 ml lemon juice; varying colours icing pens

Soon after Halloween is the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead on the 2nd of November...H ave fun decorating some spooky gingerbread biscuits for Halloween...

Brought to you by Baking Mad

Soon after Halloween is the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead on the 2nd of November...

Have fun decorating some spooky gingerbread biscuits for Halloween or Day of the Dead.

Take a look at some more seasonally spooky recipes here, or read our Top 10 Day of the Dead cakes list!

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Servings

Ingredients

For the biscuits

100 g unsalted butter
50 g unrefined light muscovado sugar
5 tbsp golden syrup
225 g plain white flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger

For the icing

200 g royal icing sugar
60 ml lemon juice
varying colours icing pens

Instructions

Melt together the butter, sugar and golden syrup.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger. Pour over the wet ingredients and mix to form a soft dough.

Bring the dough together in a ball and wrap in clingfilm. Chill for at least 30 minutes until firm.

When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 190°C/Gas Mark 5 and line 2 or 3 baking sheets with baking parchment.

On a floured surface, roll out the dough a quarter at a time (so as not to overwork it) to a thickness of 5mm (1⁄4in). Cut out the gingerbread men using a shaped cutter and bake the biscuits for 10-12 minutes until golden.

Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes before cooling completely on a rack.

When you are ready to decorate, preheat the oven to its lowest setting.

Mix the icing sugar with 35ml (1fl oz) Halloween rocky road SERVES 16 For the rocky road 340g (12oz) dark chocolate 170g (6oz) unsalted butter 8 digestive biscuits 60g (2oz) mini marshmallows For the decoration 20g (3⁄4oz) Smarties 8 edible teeth sweeties of the lemon juice until it has the thickness of toothpaste, then add more lemon juice drop by drop until it has a softer, but still firm consistency for piping. This will take about an extra 3-5ml of lemon juice. Reserve the remaining lemon juice for a further step.

Prepare a piping bag and fit it with a No.2 nozzle.

One by one, pipe the body bones of the skeletons, but not the skulls, following the picture as a guide.

Place the biscuits back on the trays and place in the low oven for 1 hour to allow the icing to set completely hard.

Put the icing from the piping bag back into the bowl; add more lemon juice until it absorbs a ribbon trail in 10 seconds. This is the ‘flood’ icing consistency for the skulls. 13 Put this icing into another piping bag prepared with a No.4 nozzle. Remove the biscuits from the oven.

On the heads of the biscuits, pipe a large blob at the top of the head and a smaller blob below. Work the two blobs together with a cocktail stick to make a skull shape. Start with small blobs as you can always add more.

When all the biscuits have skulls, bake again at the lowest oven setting for 1 hour until the icing is completely hard.

Once the icing is very hard you can paint the faces using the icing pens. Allow to dry completely before storing.