As a busy mum of two I am happy to cut corners where possible. I love anything that saves me time so loved the look of a gingerbread dough block which I came across in Sainsbury’s recently. At £2 for a 350g block it is quite expensive but great to keep in the fridge if you have unexpected guests coming round and need to whip up some biscuits without getting your hands dirty!
You need to keep the dough in the fridge and remove 30 minutes before you want to start baking. It’s quite a heavy dough and was quite difficult to roll thinly but it does say on the pack that 1 pack = 8 biscuits. I was disappointed that the dough can only be rolled out once so you have to cut out your biscuits really carefully otherwise you waste the dough. However, my cutters sliced easily through the dough and it was quite satisfying to place the biscuits on a baking tray and into the oven within minutes of opening the packet.
The ingredients include wheat flour, golden syrup, dark brown sugar, unsalted butter and mixed spices which is great as these are the main ingredients I use in my gingerbread baking. The smell is very subtle but they were full of flavour!
After cooling I tried my hand at decorating them, drawing the outline with an icing pen and filling them with royal icing. I really enjoyed making these and would definitely buy the dough again. I might even be brave enough to let Big Brother loose with the biscuit cutter next time!
yum yum yum… if it’s tried and tested (or should that be tasted?) I’m in. A good idea – lets be honest… cooked and straight out the oven any time over packet!
I quite like a lot of their new range, but, how come you can only roll out the dough once?
I just found it impossible to roll the leftover dough into a ball to re-use.If there’s a next time I’ll use smaller cutters!
I’ve discovered several things about this dough:-
– it freezes well.
– if in a hurry, instead of taking out of the fridge for 20 minutes before use, take it out of the packet and microwave on low until the dough is pliable.
– it being more pliable will result in being able to re-roll the leftovers from the first cutting.
– it goes very well with icing made with lime and/or lemon juice
– the biscuits don’t last very long in my house!
I’d never thought of using the microwave. Thanks for the tip!