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250g plain flour
50g butter or vegan margarine
140g soft light brown suga
1 free range egg yolk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1½ teaspoon gingerbread spices
4 tablespoons milk (unsweetened almond milk)
flour to dust
150g icing sugar
few drops lemon juice
food colouring in various colours
icing fondant in various colours
20g milk chocolate
Now that Sinterklaas and the Pieten ride around the country again, the minimonsters are very much in the mood for Sinterklaas bicuits. We bake gingerbread and cheefully mess around with a glaze. Since we have a mini-monster with us who has an allergy for cow milk, but for kids with lactose intolerance too, we use Wajang vegetable margarine and an unsweetened almond milk to bake with and it works super!
Today we want to show that you do not have to work very neatly, in the end it all will look very pretty. We have lots of fun with it and afterwards we enjoy our delicious bakings! That's how it should be in the last two months of the year. The Pieten will be first, tomorrow we have a nice afternoon with Sinterklaas. Then this baking marathon will be over until next year. On Monday we can relax, then the kids will be back in school!
How to make our Pieten (Pieten Cookie Cutters)
Sieve flour and baking powder in a mixing bowl.
Add butter, sugar, egg yolk and spices to the bowl.
Mix all ingredients until it turns into big crumbs.
Add the milk and mix it in until combined.
Knead the dough quickly smooth by hand.
Wrap the dough in cling film.
Allow the dough to rest 1 hr in the fridge.
Preheat the oven to 170°C then take the dough from the fridge. Cut it in two halves, save one for tomorrow!
Roll the dough to 1 - 1.5 cm thickness.
Cut out the men.
Place them on baking paper.
Bake the biscuits 10 - 12 minutes.
How to make a glaze
Drip water into the icing sugar until it is a thick liquid.
Divide the white glaze over a number of small bowls
Drip in and stir in foodcolouring until you have the desired colour.
The glaze does not have to be applied very neatly, we can easily trim it later on. We use a teaspoon to apply the glaze.
Do mind to let adjacent colors dry first. Otherwise they flow into each other and that does not look attractive. For example, you can apply the shoes and hat right after the pants. But wait with the jacket until the pants are dry. Then allow the jacket to dry thoroughly before applying the collar.
The work is not difficult but you need to be patient!
First we apply little pants and shoes.
Press the candy into the wet glaze.
Then apply the Pieten hats.
When the pants are dry apply jackets.
The biscuit intended for our youngest mini monster gets a suit from fondant (easy to remove) which he (by himself!) may decorate with miniature smarties.
Brush melted chocolate on the heads.
Make fondant icing faces on the Pieten.
Cut out fondant feathers, stick them on the hats.
Make a little glaze again forthe white collars.
Done, tomorrow we continue with the Sinterklazen!
We wish you all a cosy weekend!