• Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes

• makes approx. 40

Ingredients

• 200 g SPAR butter, at room temperature
• 315 ml light brown sugar
• 1 large SPAR egg
• 675 ml SPAR cake flour (380 g)
• 3 ml bicarbonate of soda
• 5 ml ground cinnamon
• 2 ml ground nutmeg
• 2 ml mixed spice
• 25 ml glacé cut peel
• 2 ml almond essence
• 75 g tub mixed glacé cherries, finely chopped
• 125 ml nibbed almonds
• Optional: 100 g white chocolate, for decorating

Method

1. Cream together the butter, sugar and egg thoroughly, in a SPAR Good Living 3 litre porcelain mixing bowl.
2. Blend in the remaining ingredients to achieve a soft dough that comes away cleanly from the sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for ½ hour.
3. Preheat oven to 180ºC. Place a SPAR Good Living silicone baking mat on a baking tray.
4. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Press out gently using floured hands, to 5 mm thickness.
5. Cut out shapes using the selection of SPAR Good Living cookie cutters. Transfer them to the baking mat, spaced fairly close together.
6. Bake for 15 minutes. *The little gingerbread men only need 10-12 minutes.
7. Using a SPAR Good Living small turner, transfer them onto a cake cooling rack.
8. Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over hot water. Working with one cooled biscuit at a time, dip each biscuit briefly into the chocolate, just long enough to coat half of each one evenly. Transfer onto a clean SPAR Good Living silicone baking mat, and leave to set.
9. Alternatively, pipe the melted chocolate across each biscuit in patterns of your choice. Use a plastic sandwich bag containing the melted chocolate, with a pin-head size hole snipped off one bottom corner.