Happy meal #12: Gingerbread run amok!

I’ve always wanted to bake something festive for Christmas and seeing that it’s our little household’s first Christmas, I decided that gingerbread cookies were the way to go.

First things first: I had to pop over to Phoon Huat to pick up some baking supplies. I officially declare that place my favourite bakeware supplier. It is not only a treasure trove but the products are cheaper than what you get outside. Butter for just $2! A pair of cookie cutter for slightly over a dollar! Rolling pins for slightly over a dollar (which I stupidly did not buy)! Thanks to Dr.Low’s recommendation, I went to the Sims Lane outlet which was HUGE. Love.

Next, find the perfect (read: “easy”) recipe. A search on Google and tadah! Found it on Not Quite Nigella.

And then after an hour of creative, gleeful artistic endeavour, the final product was ready to be presented to the world:

We love it! The cookies were not overly crumbly or sweet – just the perfect touch of spice and sweetness. The only problem I had during the baking was that the dough, with three cups of flour, was too unkneadable. It kept falling apart and in the end, I had to work with small portions to keep it from breaking. Many a gingerbread limb was lost and emergency surgery had to be performed to make the boys and girls whole again.

Oh and added to my woes was the fact that I didn’t have a rolling pin and the Ribena bottle that I had used was utterly useless. I was kneading and pressing and shaping everything with my hands and coupled with my handheld mixer, I was certainly giving my arms a good workout.

Thankfully, east end gets a lot of the monsoon winds at this time of the year and there was a cool breeze circulating in the kitchen. The cats were snoozing in the living room so I could bake in peace, with beautiful Christmas carols playing in the background.

You bet I’m going to be making this again!