Week 17 Dish 1: Vegan mini gingerbread men

Christmas is almost here! This week I have had a few christmassy things going on, including netball Christmas dinner and Christmas bop (Christmas party at the union - we call them bops). They have really gotten me in the festive mood! That's why this week I decided to bake some Christmas themed treats :D. I made these gingerbread men for a secret santa gift for one of the girls on my netball team - she really loved them so I hope you all do too. I used a little cookie cutter but you can use whatever size/ shapes you like, and good fun for kids to cut as well as decorate so perfect for a family project!

I got 60 (!!) mini gingerbread men out of this recipe, but of course it depends on your cookie cutter size
Ingredients
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup treacle
1/4 cup soya milk
1 cup plain flour
1 cup wholemeal flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp each ground nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
Method

1. In a large bowl whisk together the oil and sugar. Add the treacle and soyamilk and blend well.
2. In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Add this to the wet ingredients and mix until a stiff dough is formed. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill for at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.
3. If the dough is in the fridge for more than 1 hour, let sit for 10 minutes for 10 minutes to warm up first. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and line two baking trays with grease proof paper.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out the shapes with your cookie cutters and place on the baking trays. Bake for 7-8 minutes (it took 7 minutes in my fan oven but may take a little longer in a conventional oven - they should be soft even after cooling). Cool for a couple of minutes on the tray then move to a wire rack to cool completely before icing.

Original recipe: Gingerbread cut out cookies