Gingerbread People (Cookies)

 

Hello Loose shoppers,

We're just about into December 2020, and what a year it's been. No doubt adding more vegan, gluten-free and refined sugar-free foods into our cooking repertoire could be a very good thing. Our bodies appreciate lighter foods and especially our emotions; less sugar. 

This month we are offering you one wholesome and delicious recipe per week, to get you in the mood!

You will be able to pick up the recipe cards in the shop and preorder the ingredients for those recipes with a 10% discount!

Sound good?

We also have a couple of Christmas gifts for you in the form of FREE online cooking classes! Where we'll make some edible Christmas presents and prepare our Christmas feast together! More info for these closer to the date.

Today's recipe is from Maria-Carin Gala's cookbook Lick Your Plate. It was quite a hot debate whether to call the cookies Gingerbread Men, Women, Humans or Transgender. They are now called Gingerbread people, to incorporate all humans.

You can even watch a video of this recipe on YouTube. It's one of my first videos so please bare with the organic-ness of it. Enjoy.

Gingerbread People

Vegan Christmas baking can be so easy, and you don't even have to melt any coconut oil for these, but use marvellous olive oil instead. You can make gingerbread people out of this dough using currants for buttons or boobs, or how about some shooting stars? Elks are nice too. To avoid buying all of the spices listed, you can easily use a spice mix for gingerbread. If you do purchase all of them, let yourself get lost in the aroma, they're best freshly ground... mmm... enjoy these homemade cookies with a warm body close to you and a cup of Rooi Chai (page 37)... now that's cozy!

MAKES 15-20 PEOPLE, DEPENDING ON THEIR SIZE OF COURSE

Dry ingredients

1 cup buckwheat flour 

1/2 cup rice flour

1/2 cup muscovado sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon, obviously ground 1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cardamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

Pinch salt

1/2 tsp bicarb

Wet ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil

4-5 tbsp rice or soy milk or water 1 tbsp blackstrap molasses

Also

A few currants for buttons, eyes or boobs

ACTION!

Preheat oven to 160°C.

First mix the dry ingredients well, then add the wet ingredients and knead into a uniform dough.

Refrigerate for about 15-20 minutes.

Roll out onto a floured surface, or baking paper, cut medium-sized gingerbread humans and give them currant buttons or boobs.

Bake for about 15 minutes.

You might have to rescue the thinner ones by taking them out of the oven with a spatula and letting the thicker ones bake a few minutes longer.

If you are cutting smaller cookies, then bake for 10 minutes and keep a close eye on them, so they don't burn.

They harden greatly when they cool.

If you undercooked all of them you can re-bake them at about 100°C for 15 minutes or longer to dry them out, or in other words make them crunchy like a real cookie!

This is a neat little trick to have up your sleeve.

 

Have a great start to December 2020,

Maria-Carin Gala from Gala's Organic Kitchen, on behalf of Loose the plastic-free shop in Stroud.