Christmas Countdown | Part 5: Gingerbread Biscuits

1 pack IKEA gingerbread dough

Little bit of flour

Rolling pin

Cookie cutters

Sprinkles

Icing

Both my mum and my boyfriend work in a school and recently they  celebrated St. Lucia which is on the 13th December and is a major celebration in Scandinavian countries especially. One of my mum's colleagues had told her about how they usually buy gingerbread dough in IKEA instead of making it themselves. I love to cook and I don't find cooking too difficult, you mix a bunch of ingredients and flavours together and tada! Yummy food. Baking on the other hand, meh. I don't hate baking but I wish I was able to make amazing baked goods every time I try out a recipe. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, which is so frustrating. Hearing about a ready made gingerbread dough filled me with hope. I'm all for easy, baking hacks and shortcuts, and this sounded like a winner. So we went to IKEA and after getting a few bits and bobs (I'm trying to get into sewing!) I made my way into the little food shop. The dough was ridiculously inexpensive (2,25€ for 500g!) so I bought two because you can never have too much gingerbread dough, am I right? I also got some marshmallow snowmen and Christmas tree sweets to use as decorations.

The instructions are super easy. I used a tiny bit of flour to dust the surface but it didn't actually say to do that and the dough wasn't too sticky so you can just omit that step. Preheat the oven to 175-200°C (I found this rather vague so I just turned it to 190°C), line a backing sheet with baking paper, knead the dough and then roll it out until it is 2-3mm thick. Use whichever cookie cutters you have, I used Christmas themed ones like angels, snowmen, reindeers, stars and Christmas trees. I used one pack of dough and needed two baking sheets. Bake them for 6-7 minutes in the oven, then leave to cool. They turn golden brown but still feel squidgy. This is ok! They harden up as they cool down. Don't freak out and leave them in the oven otherwise they will just burn. 

My boyfriend, having spent the past week making these with preschool kids, assured me that the biscuits wouldn't expand too much. He lied. Not on purpose, I might add. It may just be down to my bad baking luck. They expanded a lot. The stars turned into blobs, the snowmen into bells and the reindeer...well I don't even know what they ended up resembling. After being decorated (again, not really my forte, some of them look downright scary), they looked noticeably better and far more appetising. And they tasted delicious, not too overpowering but just right!

So if you aren't particularly skilled in the baking department or you just don't have the time, then this is a great little life hack to use. It's also a great idea if you want to bake with your kids but can't be bothered to faff around and spend ages making dough! You can even buy it in advance and freeze it. 

Have you ever used this dough before?