Fun for the family and a showstopper Christmas table feature!
I love making pastry but I’ve never been able to achieve uniform thickness using a regular rolling pin. I thought uniform dough thickness was restricted to professional kitchens with dough sheeting machines.
I didn’t know there was such a thing as an adjustable rolling pin until I discovered the Joseph Joseph Adjustable Rolling Pin. The rolling pin is made from beech wood and it comes with 4 brightly coloured removable discs. The discs raise the rolling surface by different amounts allowing you to roll out dough that’s 2 mm, 4 mm, 6 mm or even 10 mm thick. The measurements are clearly inscribed on the disc and each thickness has its own unique colour.
If you remove the discs you can use the Joseph Joseph adjustable pin as a regular rolling pin and it can be used for anything that requires rolling out such as pastry, bun dough, biscuits, pizza bases and even lasagne sheets. Whilst the discs are dishwasher safe you’ll need to hand wash the wooden rolling pin.
I decided to use the rolling pin to make this Gingerbread Christmas Tree. You divide the dough into 2 pieces so I rolled out one half of the dough using a regular rolling pin and rolled out the second piece of dough using the adjustable rolling pin. The adjustable rolling pin made such a difference and I’d rolled out a uniform, even piece of gingerbread in no time at all. I can see I’ll be using this rolling pin a great deal in the future.
Making a Gingerbread Christmas Tree is a labour of love and would be a great family activity. Once you’ve made the gingerbread you can be as creative as you like with the decorations. I went classic with white royal icing but you could use sprinkles, candy canes, Smarties or coloured fondant.
Here’s the recipe for you which makes one large tree. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup, a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional oven so if you have a fan-forced oven you may need to reduce the temperature by 20°C.
Gingerbread Christmas Tree
Ingredients
- 50g butter
- 100g (½ cup) firmly packed brown sugar
- 125mls (½ cup) golden syrup
- 1 egg, lightly whisked
- 300g (2 cups) plain flour
- 75g (½ cup) self raising flour
- 1 tbs cocoa powder
- 3 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
- ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
For the Royal icing:
- 1 egg white
- 2 cups sifted icing sugar
- ½ tsp lemon juice
To decorate:
- Decorations of your choice – sprinkles, candy canes, Smarties, icing sugar
Method:
1. Place the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Set aside for 10 minutes to cool slightly.
2. Combine the butter mixture and egg in a large mixing bowl. Sift the combined flours, cocoa, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, pepper and bicarbonate of soda over the butter mixture. Stir until well combined.
3. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead until smooth. Shape into a disc, divide into 2 portions then cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 1 hour to rest.
4. Preheat oven to 180ºC conventional. Line 4 large baking trays with baking paper or if you only have 2 trays, then cool the tray a little before reusing. Roll 1 portion of dough out on a lightly floured sheet of baking paper until 4mm thick. Use graduated star cutters to cut out four 3cm stars, six 5cm stars, six 7cm stars, six 9cm stars and six 11cm stars from the dough, re-rolling the dough as necessary.
5. Place the stars 2 cm apart, graded by size, onto the prepared trays. Use the tip of a plain piping nozzle to cut out a hole in the centre of 2 of the smallest stars. I normally place the unbaked gingerbread in the fridge whilst one of the trays of gingerbread is baking. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until lightly golden and crisp. The smaller stars will need the least amount of time, the larger stars the longest. Set aside on the trays to cool completely.
To decorate
Place the egg white in a bowl. Using a whisk, break up the egg white and add the icing sugar a few tablespoons at a time, whisking continuously until all incorporated. Add lemon juice and continue whisking until the icing is thick enough to hold stiff peaks and is smooth and shiny. The lemon juice will extend the setting time of the icing.
If the icing is too thick and stiff to pipe, add a little hot water and whisk again to loosen up slightly. Place icing in a piping bag fitted with a 1-2mm plain nozzle and decorate the points of the stars with icing then decoratively pipe around the edges, flooding a few of the stars with the icing for contrast. Set aside for 3-4 hours or until set. Place the remaining icing in a sealed container then place in the fridge.
To assemble
Place one the largest stars on a serving plate then add the stars one at a time glueing each layer with the reserved royal icing. Rotate the stars slightly as you go to form the branches of the tree. Continue stacking and glueing the remaining stars in decreasing size, finishing with two 3cm stars. You may not choose to use all the stars.
To top the tree, glue the last 2 small stars together and then glue upright. Pipe extra icing on the stars to create a snowy look and add any additional decorations at this time. Set aside to set then dust with icing sugar just before serving.
The uniced gingerbread will keep for 1 month in an airtight container. The decorated tree should last for 2 weeks depending on humidity.
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