Halloween Skeleton Gingerbread Men

Fun and spooky gingerbread men biscuits made with black cocoa powder and decorated as skeletons for Halloween

Course Snack

Cuisine British

Keyword Cookies

Prep Time 45

Cook Time 12

Total Time 57

Servings

Calories 195kcal

Author thebakingexplorer

Ingredients

For the gingerbread men

275 g Plain flour
50 g Black cocoa powder see notes
1 tbsp Ground ginger
2 tsp Mixed spice
150 g Light brown soft sugar
¼ tsp Salt
100 g Butter or baking spread unsalted, cold
1 Egg large
1 tsp Vanilla extract optional
85 g Golden syrup
15 g Black treacle (molasses)

For decoration

75 g Icing sugar
¼ tsp Vanilla extract
½-3/4 tbsp Water add slowly

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Put the plain flour, black cocoa powder, light brown soft sugar, salt, ground ginger, and mixed spice into a large mixing bowl and stir them together
Add the butter in chunks or cubes and use your fingers to rub it into the flour mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs. Or you can use a food processor to do this
Next add the egg, golden syrup, black treacle and vanilla extract. Stir them into the mixture until a dough forms. Try not to over work the dough
Roll the dough out onto a well floured surface using a rolling pin. Move the dough around every few rolls to make sure it isn't sticking to your surface. Aim for a thickness of 3-5mm
Using a gingerbread man cookie cutter, cut out your shapes. You will need to re-roll the dough out to use it all up
Lay the shapes out onto lined baking trays, and put them in the fridge to chill for 15 minutes
While they're chilling, pre-heat your oven to 160C Fan/350F/Gas Mark 4
Bake the gingerbread men for 10-12 minutes. It is hard to tell when they are done because they are black, they will look dry and not have any raw dough patches, but they will still be soft (they will firm up as they cool)
Let the biscuits cool on the trays as if you remove them too soon they could break apart
For the icing, mix the icing sugar with the vanilla and water, add the water slowly and mix until you have a thick pipeable paste
Put the icing into a piping bag and snip a little off the end, then pipe the skeleton features onto the biscuits
Store in an airtight container and eat within 1 week. They can also be frozen

Video

Notes

You can use either unsalted butter or a baking spread to make the biscuit dough, but either way it should be used cold.
If you don't have black cocoa powder, you can use regular cocoa powder plus some black food colouring.
Mixed spice is a British spice blend containing cinnamon, coriander seed, nutmeg, clove, pimento and ginger. If you can't get hold of it, you can use a pumpkin spice mix instead.
I really recommend using light brown soft sugar if you can for these biscuits, but caster sugar will work well too.
Golden syrup is sold all over the world, so check the international section in your supermarket if you're not based in the UK. You can also buy it online from Amazon (see link below). If you can't get hold of it, you can substitute it with light corn syrup, maple syrup or honey, please note I've not tested this recipe with these substitutions.
Although I provide cup measurements, I highly recommend weighing your ingredients out using digital kitchen scales. It is the most accurate way to measure ingredients and will ensure the best results. Digital scales are very low cost and can be purchased for around £12 ($16.50).
For teaspoon (tsp) and tablespoon (tbsp) measurements, please use measuring spoons and not the type of spoons you eat with. Again this will ensure accuracy and provide the best results.

Nutrition