delga | { miscellaneous. }

Hi guys! Have a recipe for gingerbread that is very, very easy.

350g/12oz plain flour
175g/6oz light soft brown sugar
100g/4oz butter (softened)
1 medium egg
4 tablespoons of golden syrup
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (/baking soda)
1½ teaspoon of ground ginger

Heat your oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. If you have a fan oven, I suggest 170°C, but it doesn't make a huge difference. You can use 180°C and just take them out a bit earlier.

Put flour, butter, ground ginger and bicarbonate of soda in a mixing bowl, and mix with your hand until it's crumbly. You'll have to rub the butter between your fingers to get it to separate properly.

Add the egg, brown sugar, and golden syrup, and mix together. I think the recipe calls for you to mix with a spoon, but I just go in straight with my hands. Every time I have made these, I've been concerned that it's too dry, and the dough doesn't come together properly. Not true! It will be crumbly, and will crack a lot, but it will come together. Just keep rubbing at it until the dough comes together.

Roll out on lightly floured surface. You want the dough to be about half a centimetre thick. Use cookie cutters, or cut into rectangles.

Put on greased trays. I take a block of butter and rub it directly onto the tray. Other people use greaseproof paper. Whichever works for you.

Cook for 10-15 minutes, but check at 10 minutes. The brown sugar means they will come out darker than most biscuits, but you will be able to tell if they're done or not. You want them to be light brown. I always take them out at 10 minutes because in a fan oven that's enough time, but you might next a couple extra minutes for normal ovens. Let them cool.

Eat, and be merry.

I am going to London today - lol, again - to see In a Forest, Dark and Deep. I am excited about Olivia Williams! And the other guy, sure. Am hoping to see hestia8 either today or tomorrow, and have made super tentative plans to meet up with ex-housemate, N, for lunch tomorrow. But other than that, I plan to relax, enjoy the City, and have a good time. I have not made stupid plans with people who cannot be relied upon, because that was clearly a dumbass move on my part last time.

Am considering going to the stage door. The stage door for the Vaudeville Theatre is in a really weird place, quite far from the theatre door. Last time I went I was with my sister, and we spoke to Jeff Goldblum. Am tempted to go to speak to Williams, but am also a coward/find it a bit creepy? so probably not.

There has been so much sun lately! It makes me so happy! But not in an overt way - I just feel more optimistic when I get up, and leave the house. I feel more pleasant on the bus in. The fen absolutely lights up. It's wonderful.