The Story of the Giant 'Ginga' bread Man

Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the sweetness of the 'ginga' bread man!

The story of how this 'ginga' bread man came to town is a bit of a funny one.

My capoeira teacher Bia was due back from being in Brazil for 6 weeks and I wanted to bake her some 'welcome back to the UK' goodies. I had some butter to use up and some fresh ginger in the fridge, so naturally, baking a batch of little gingerbread men seemed like the perfect gift.

And so I got to work, making the dough, and left it to rest in the fridge. It was only when I went to get my gingerbread man cutter that I realised why I've never actually used it.

The neck on the cutter is so thin that when you go to stamp out a man, his head gets chopped off! Oop. (I would have shown you but it might have disturbed you to see a beheaded gingerbread man.) I didn't fancy stamping out the men and sticking their heads back on, so needed a Plan B. And then it came to me.

Why, build a GIANT gingerbread man of course!

(Now, by giant, I mean as-big-as-the-biggest-size-tin-I-own. Which is roughly 10 x 7", so I used the leftover dough to make some gingerbread stars too.)

But anyway, with him now becoming more epic, I realised that it wouldn't just do to present him as an ordinary gingerbread man with buttons. He needed to look more awesome than the standard gingerbread. And so, he was turned into...the 'ginga' bread man!

'Ginga' is the name of a standard move in capoeira, where it means 'to swing' or rock back and forth. You basically step back with one foot, then the other from side to side, swinging your arms infront of you to protect your face.

Now, I only thought of the name after baking him, which is why he is simply waving, rather than preparing for attack! But with the iced trousers and belt, and er, slightly crooked smile, I would hope that he does look like a tough old capoeirista cookie ;-)

"Gar, you wanna piece a' me?"

The recipe can of course be used to make any kind of giant gingerbread man you want (or a batch of small gingerbread pieces). Don't waste any leftover dough from the big man though, use it to create smaller men, or some extra star/circle shapes.

The icing I've left out the recipe below because to be honest, I'm crap with working out the ratio of icing sugar to water. (Basically I just kept adding in sugar to the mix until it was thick enough to spread.)

This is the lovely chewy kind of gingerbread, rather than the hard kind, and so it will still be slightly soft when you take it out the oven. Only make this then, if you're patient enough to allow this to cool and firm up a little before eating...

Giant Gingerbread Man

Print-friendly recipe

Makes 300g dough (could probably create up to a 20" tall giant gingerbread man!)

4 tbsp golden syrup
25ml water
50g unsalted butter, softened
50g brown sugar
125g plain flour
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1. Mix the syrup with the water and set aside.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar, then mix into the syrup mixture.
3. In a large bowl, sift in the flour, then mix in the ginger, cinnamon and soda.
4. Add in the butter mixture, then start to knead to bring together into a dough. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
5. Roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness. Use a knife to cut out your giant gingerbead man!
6. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C. Carefully transfer your man to a lined baking tray and chill again for 10 minutes if possible. Bake him for about 15 minutes until golden.

Your giant gingerbread man will still be slightly soft, so place him on a cooling rack to firm up before icing and eating!

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