Photo shoot complete before breakfast… so then these became breakfast!

I really wanted to put together a healthy gingerbread recipe. I love gingerbread and typically I would cut out the dough into gingerbread men, but gingerbread men are everywhere at Christmas and as cute as they are I really wanted to do something a little different from the norm this year.

I wanted to combine the idea of gingerbread with something equally as Christmassy…. Enter the Christmas gingerbread parcel, packed full of sweet and spicy mincemeat!

Mmmm, a crisp and chewy gingerbread cookie shell with a soft and juicy fruity centre. These are so moreish, rich and filling but not so sickly sweet. Using homemade mincemeat makes such a difference, as I mentioned yesterday in this post, I never used to like mincemeat at all….please give it a try!

I’d originally tried to create a gluten free gingerbread dough which tasted great (in dough form) but rolling it out presented an issue as the dough was quite crumbly. I think it would have been fine for a flat cookie, but these really needed the extra elasticity to allow them to be folded up into the individual parcels. So, I opted for the tried and tested spelt version as I am still quite a novice when it comes to GF baking. I’d be interested to know of any tips or comments other may have!

Of course this dough could be used for traditional gingerbread men if you prefer!

Recipe: Gingerbread parcels

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups mix of whole and white spelt flour
• ½ cup arrowroot
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1tbs ground ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• 3tbs coconut oil- melted
• 1 tsp flax and 2 tbs hot water mixed
• 1/3 cup agave nectar plus ¼ tsp stevia
• 2 tbs molasses
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• Half a jar of mincemeat- bought or (ideally) homemade

Method

Preheat oven to 180C. In a large bowl mix together dry ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowl.  Slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet until you get a stiff dough. I didn’t feel that the dough needed time to chill, but feel free to chill for a short while if you feel it will make it more workable, particularly if a little sticky.

Roll out the dough using lightly floured parchment paper. Roll out to approx. 5mm thick and cut into squares approx. 8cm wide. Spoon a teaspoon of mincemeat mixture into the centre of each square and pinch the corners together sealing them at the top  to form a parcel (it’s simpler than it sounds!)

Bake for approx. 8-10 mins until they begin to colour at the edges. Cool completely and decorate with a dusting of icing sugar if desired.