Chocolate Orange Gingerbread Recipes

ORANGE GINGERBREAD TASSIES

Steps:

• Beat first 7 ingredients until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in flour. Refrigerate, covered, until firm enough to shape, about 1 hour., Preheat oven to 350°. Shape dough into 1-in. balls; press evenly onto bottom and up sides of ungreased mini-muffin cups. Bake until golden brown, 15-18 minutes. Press centers with the handle of a wooden spoon to reshape as necessary. Cool completely in pan before removing to wire rack., In a microwave-safe bowl, heat baking chips, cream and butter until blended, stirring occasionally. Stir in orange zest; cool completely. Spoon into crusts. Refrigerate until filling is soft-set. If desired, garnish with orange peel.

CHOCOLATE CHIP GINGERBREAD WITH ORANGE HARD SAUCE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom only of 8 or 9-inch square pan. Beat eggs in large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes or until slightly thickened. Gradually add molasses and sugar, beating until well blended.
• Add buttermilk and melted butter; mix well. Add all remaining gingerbread ingredients except chocolate chips; beat until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour into greased pan.
• Bake at 350°F. until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. For 8-inch pan, bake 43 to 53 minutes; for 9-inch pan, bake 30 to 40 minutes. Cool 20 minutes.
• In small bowl, combine powdered sugar and 1/3 cup butter; beat with electric mixer at low speed until smooth and creamy. Beat in orange peel and orange juice.
• To serve, cut gingerbread into squares; place on individual dessert plates. Spoon about 1 tablespoon sauce over each serving.

CHOCOLATE GINGERBREAD ADVENT CALENDAR

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Put the flour, cocoa, ginger, butter and sugar in a processor, and whizz until you can't see any lumps of butter. Dribble in the syrup and pulse to a smooth dough.
• Take about a quarter of the dough at a time and roll out between 2 sheets of baking parchment to the thickness of a £1 coin. Peel away the top layer of parchment and use cookie cutters to make shapes - leaving about 2cm between each shape as they will spread as they cook. Peel away the dough trimmings and lift the parchment with the shapes onto a baking tray. Bake for 12-15 mins until firm. Remove from the oven and use a plastic straw to make a hole for hanging. Work quickly - if the biscuits cool and harden too much, the holes won't be as neat - then pop the tray back in the oven for 1 min to re-warm.
• Continue rolling and shaping all the remaining dough and trimmings while you bake a tray at a time, until all the dough is used up and you have at least 24 biscuits. Cool completely, then decorate and string up as you wish.
• To make number bunting: Cut your biscuits into triangles using a template - ours was 7cm on each side. After baking, cut two hanging holes in the middle of one side. Use number cutters (or cut out with a small sharp knife like we did) to stamp out 1 to 24 from a sheet of ready-rolled icing. Make runny icing by mixing some sifted icing sugar with a dribble of water. Use small paintbrushes to paint the tops of the icing numbers with some runny icing before dunking in their favourite coloured sprinkles and edible glitters. Leave the numbers to dry for 10 mins, then use more runny icing painted on the bottom of the numbers to stick them to the biscuits.
• To make sparkly snowflakes: Stamp your biscuits out using different snowflake cutters - cakescookiesandcraftsshop.co.uk have pretty ones. Decorate each biscuit differently by painting some with runny icing (see instructions above), then dunking into edible glitters and sprinkles - it's easiest if you tip them onto a small, flat saucer first. Add more icing sugar to your runny icing to make a stiffer consistency, spoon into a piping bag and pipe on pretty details. You can pipe a number onto each with this icing too, if you want.
• To make biscuit baubles: Make a stiff-ish icing using fondant icing sugar this time (this results in a shinier finish). Then thinly pipe around the outsides and holes of each biscuit. You're making a 'wall' to hold in the other icing, so make sure you don't leave any gaps. Leave to set for 30 mins until hard. Make more icing of a slightly runnier consistency. Pipe or spoon the icing onto the biscuits, 'flooding' the area inside your icing 'walls'. Shake a little to evenly spread the runny icing, then immediately use the remaining stiffer icing to pipe on a number. These biscuits will need at least a day to harden before hanging. For step-by-step instructions on 'flooding' icing, see Edd Kimber's Fancy iced biscuits (see 'goes well with')