Yeah I know it’s a little too late but hey, some people love gingerbread so much they don’t wait for X’mas to savour them! I made this on Christmas eve and the house couldn’t have smelt more festive.

Ingredients (yield depends on your cookie cutter, I made about 32 trees)
110gm unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
110gm brown or muscavado sugar
1 large egg (about 60gm with shell)
2/3 cup full-flavour molasses
420gm plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Sift flour in a medium bowl and add salt, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until it turns into a light cream.

Add egg and molasses and beat till well blended.

At this point you might see curdles. Do not panic, it’s not the end of the world. Yet.

Gradually add flour mixture in 3 to 4 additions until all the ingredients are blended and the mixture turns into a sticky dough.
Divide dough into 3 portions, cling wrap them and chuck them into the chiller for 3-4 hours or better still, overnight, until the dough is firm enough to be manageable. Dividing the dough into many portions allows you to work in batches. Otherwise once out of the chiller, the dough softens and it will be much stickier and messier.
Now that the dough is firm, flour the work top generously and flatten the dough to about a quarter inch thickness, and (yes finally!) cut the dough with your Christmasy cookie cutter.

Line the deliciousness on baking paper with about 1 inch gap as they expand during baking.

Bake at 175 degrees Celsius in a preheated oven for 15-18 minutes (depending on the size of your cookies), or until the sides turn a little brown, or when the cookies are slightly firm at touch.
Decorate to your heart’s content or if you’re anything like me, pop them straight into your mouths.