Friday Picnic: It's A Winter Gingerland

Come on join our picnic with a twist, we’re treating it like it’s the classic end of term party…
If you can’t read the text what you need to know is that it’s spicy, fiery and hot. And very gingery!
We’ve Crabbie’s Ginger Beer, Fish& sushi, Ginger Snap Singers, and bring your own gingerbread to create something grotto like (or just grotty)
We’ll announce more as people sign up. Please do join us in our last daft get together of 2011

Gingerbread Recipe from Mike Wallis of Tea and Cake for those planning on taking part in our Gingerbread Challenge

If you’re feeling festive it would be brilliant if you could make some gingerbread and bring it along to our Ginger Wonderland.

but trees and houses would be great to see as well – so we can make our very own Ginger Wonderland.

This will be an activity that promisesto be lots of fun for kids and grown-ups alike. We’d love it if youmade the shapes with your own special recipe (but if not we’ve given you a recipe to try), and of course, there’s the big question to answer: soft-and-chewy, or crisp-and-crunchy?

Here’s Mike’s recipe

340 g plain flour

1/2 tsp bicarb

1 heaped tsp ground ginger

120 g butter

170 g light soft brown sugar

70g golden syrup

1 large egg, beaten.

Oven at gas 5/190c

Sift together flour, bicarb, and spice. Rub in the butter, then stir

in the sugar. Beat the syrup and egg together (if it helps, pop the

syrup tin in a bowl of hot water to soften before weighing it out) and

stir into the dry ingredients to form a soft dough.

Thinly roll outsome of the dough onto a floured surface – about the thickness of a £1

coin – and stamp out shapes. Put shapes well spread out onto a sheet

of baking parchment and put in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.

Take out of the fridge and put into the oven for 15-20 minutes, until

golden and starting to crisp around the edges. While that batch is

baking you can gather the offcuts, re-roll and stamp, and put that

batch into the fridge to chill.

If you use two baking sheets – one forcold, one for hot – and just transfer the baking parchment you canhave quite a production line going! Cool on a rack, and when cold pop

into airtight boxes, where they should keep crispy for about a week.

Don’t leave them out overnight to cool, though – they’ll go soggy

Gingerbread Recipe from Mike Wallis of Tea and Cake for those planning on taking part in our Gingerbread Challenge

If you’re feeling festive it would be brilliant if you could make some gingerbread and bring it along to our Winter Gingerland.

What we’d like to see is one or two gingerbread men or women from everybody taking part, decorated so that you know it’s yours, as well as some different shapes – like squares, rectangles, circles and triangles, but trees and houses would be great to see as well – so we can make our very own wonderland.

This will be an activity that promisesto be lots of fun for kids and grown-ups alike. We’d love it if you made the shapes with your own special recipe (but if not we’ve given you a recipe to try), and of course, there’s the big question to answer: soft-and-chewy, or crisp-and-crunchy?

Here’s Mike’s recipe let us know how you get on

340 g plain flour

1/2 tsp bicarb

1 heaped tsp ground ginger

120 g butter

170 g light soft brown sugar

70g golden syrup

1 large egg, beaten.

Oven at gas 5/190c

Sift together flour, bicarb, and spice. Rub in the butter, then stir in the sugar. Beat the syrup and egg together (if it helps, pop the syrup tin in a bowl of hot water to soften before weighing it out) and stir into the dry ingredients to form a soft dough.

Thinly roll outsome of the dough onto a floured surface – about the thickness of a £1 coin – and stamp out shapes. Put shapes well spread out onto a sheet of baking parchment and put in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.

Take out of the fridge and put into the oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden and starting to crisp around the edges. While that batch is baking you can gather the offcuts, re-roll and stamp, and put that batch into the fridge to chill.

If you use two baking sheets – one forcold, one for hot – and just transfer the baking parchment you canhave quite a production line going! Cool on a rack, and when cold pop into airtight boxes, where they should keep crispy for about a week.

Don’t leave them out overnight to cool, though – they’ll go soggy