About the bake
Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead is a Mexican celebration. These Day of the Dead gingerbread cookies are a celebration of all the fun and colour of this holiday and taste delicious too. A great bake to make with your children, especially fans of the Coco film.
For a vegan friendly alternative, try our Vegan Gingerbread Dough recipe
Method
Step 1:
Melt together the butter, sugar and golden syrup.
Step 2:
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.
Step 3:
Bring the dough together in a ball and wrap in cling film. Chill for at least 30 minutes until firm.
Step 4:
When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 190°C/170° Fan/ Gas 5 and line 2 or 3 baking sheets with baking parchment.
Step 5:
On a floured surface, roll out your dough a quarter at a time (so as not to overwork it) to a thickness of 1/2 cm. Cut out the gingerbread men and bake them for 10-12 minutes until golden.
Step 6:
Remove form the oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes before cooling completely on a rack.
Step 7:
When you are ready to decorate, preheat the oven to its lowest setting.
Step 8:
Mix the icing sugar with 35ml 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.
Step 9:
Prepare your piping bag with the no 2 nozzle.
Step 10:
One by one pipe the body bones of the skeletons, but not the skulls.
Step 11:
Place the biscuits back on the trays and place in the low oven for one hour to allow the icing to set completely hard.
Step 12:
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.
Step 13:
Put this icing into another piping bag prepared with the no 4 nozzle. Remove the biscuits from the oven.
Step 14:
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.
Step 15:
When all the biscuits have skulls, bake again at the lowest oven setting for one hour until the icing is completely hard.
Step 16:
Once the icing is very hard you can paint the faces using the icing pens. Allow to dry completely before storing
Ingredients
For the Biscuits
- 100g Unsalted butter (softened)
- 50g Billington's Unrefined Light Muscovado Sugar
- 5 tbsp Golden syrup
- 225g Allinson's Plain White Flour
- 1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tsp Ground ginger
For the Icing
- 200g Silver Spoon Icing Sugar
- 60ml Juice of one whole lemon
- Varying colours Icing pens
- 200g Silver Spoon Icing Sugar
Utensils
- Gingerbread man cutter
- Piping bag
- Round nozzle (no2 and no4)
- Cocktail stick
- Cling film
- Baking parchment
Recipe Reviews
okay
they look so scary
Ingredients
For the Biscuits
- 100g Unsalted butter (softened)
- 50g Billington's Unrefined Light Muscovado Sugar
- 5 tbsp Golden syrup
- 225g Allinson's Plain White Flour
- 1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tsp Ground ginger
For the Icing
- 200g Silver Spoon Icing Sugar
- 60ml Juice of one whole lemon
- Varying colours Icing pens
- 200g Silver Spoon Icing Sugar
Utensils
- Gingerbread man cutter
- Piping bag
- Round nozzle (no2 and no4)
- Cocktail stick
- Cling film
- Baking parchment