GF Gingerbread Circles

Christmas was the time of year that I used to enjoy a delicious Gingerbread Reindeer so this year I was quite upset that I was no longer able to partake in this delicious Christmas treat.  This motivated me into actually trying to convert my first biscuit recipe.

I was quite nervous about baking gingerbread because the recipe called for a hefty 2 ½ cups of flour. 

I started with the creaming of butter and sugar together and then adding the egg yolk and golden syrup.

Next came one of the parts I was most worried about, the adding of the flour and spices - as GF flour is notorious for being very crumbly.  I was surprised to find out that it held together in dough form really well!  I also added another half a tbs or so of ginger for a more gingery kick.   (This picture was before kneading it - straight out of the mixing bowl - hence why it looks crumbly here)

The dough then had to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes as it is easier to work with ie. roll out, when colder.

This next stage was the second part that was a scary prospect, trying to roll out the dough.  I was very afraid of it crumbling apart instead of rolling out nicely.

Fortunately it worked out perfectly and, having no cookie cutters in the house, I was able to cut circles with a small Tupperware Snack container

I only rolled out one half of the batch of dough as I figured it was better to try them first, these are the cookies I got out of half of the dough.

Baking......

My cookies didn't seem to 'brown' up much but I wasn't too worried.  I put them on originally for 8 minutes as I had read in the comments below the recipe that I should lessen the time if I want a more softer/chewy gingerbread.  Unfortunately because I had not rolled out the first cookies as thin as others, this ended up with a variance in degrees of cooking.  I ended up with some softer yet crumblier thicker cookies and some really nice thinner ones.  I would recommend sticking with the 4 mm thickness described in the recipe.  My first few cookies were about 5 mm and these were the ones that were crumbly.

I also lost a cookie in the move from oven to cooling rack because I tried to get them straight off the tray after pulling them out of the oven and one of the thicker cookies just broke apart.  I panicked then, thinking they were fail cookies but after leaving them on the baking paper for another minute they hardened up a bit and they all stayed together.

All in all, I am pretty happy with the turnout!  I was skeptical and very pleasantly surprised.  I have another half batch in the fridge which I might bake up tomorrow.  I don't think I will bother decorating these ones as they are only for us and they will be gone pretty quickly I think :)

Recipe link - http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/9761/gingerbread+men#null