Whip up a batch of these Vegan Halloween Gingerbread Mummies, Skeletons and Vampires this Halloween. They're the perfect treat! Get the recipe below.
Gingerbread is a classic biscuit served in the colder months. Whilst most people associate it with Christmas, it's a versatile biscuit that can be enjoyed on other occasions too - take Halloween for example!
To make it the perfect spooky treat, I cut out gingerbread people and then decorate them to look like mummies wrapped up in bandages, skeletons, and vampires with bloody fangs.
The decorating doesn't have to be complicated to be effective and is great for little helpers to get involved with. They will love cutting out the shapes and doing the icing.
For those ghosts and ghouls who prefer a sweet biscuit to a spicy one, why not try my Vegan Halloween Sugar Cookies.
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Ingredients
To make gingerbread you need 7 ingredients. They are:
- fat (vegan butter),
- sugar (dark muscavado sugar, golden syrup and treacle),
- spices (ground ginger and cinnamon) and
- flour (self raising flour).
Step-by-step Instructions
To make the gingerbread shapes there are just 10 simple steps.
- Step 1: In a heavy bottomed saucepan, you will melt the vegan butter, dark muscavado sugar, golden syrup and treacle until it's a wonderful, sticky, molten mix.
- Step 2: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and spices until evenly distributed.
- Step 3: Once the sugar and fats have melted together leave to cool for 5 minutes.
- Step 4: Pour the cooled syrup into the flour and spices and bring together into a ball of dough.
- Step 5: Wrap the ball of dough in cling film or place in a Ziploc bag and chill for a minimum of 2 hours or ideally overnight.
- Step 6: When the dough is chilled, pre-heat your oven and line baking trays with baking paper.
- Step 7: Roll the dough out to 5mm thick on a surface lightly dusted with flour to stop it sticking.
- Step 8: Use a gingerbread man cookie cutter to cut out the shapes and place on to a baking tray.
- Step 9: Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Step 10: Leave to cool on the baking try and, only once they have firmed up, transfer them to a wire rack to cool fully.
To decorate, grab your icing, food colouring, piping bags and edible eyes! Here's what you need to do next.
- Step 1: Mix the icing and water together. If using multiple colours, divide some of the icing into smaller bowls and colour with the food gel, mixing well.
- Step 2: Transfer your icing to your icing bag(s).
- Step 3: Start by piping small dots of icing where you want the eyes and stick on the edible eye decorations.
- Step 4: Next decorate the faces and bodies of the characters using white for the mummies' bandages and the skeletons' bones and red for the vampires' fangs.
Equipment
To make my Vegan Halloween Gingerbread recipe you're going to need the following equipment:
- A heavy bottomed saucepan
- A spatula
- A mixing bowl
- Clingfilm or a Ziploc bag
- Baking trays
- Baking paper
- Rolling pin
- Cookie cutters
- Small bowls
- Spoons
- Piping bags
Storage
Keep the finished gingerbread in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Top tip
Dip the sides of the cookie cutter into flour before cutting out each shape for a clean cut.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, it's perfectly normal (and right) for it to be squishy and sticky when you first add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. It will firm up as the butter and sugar cools completely in the fridge.
Yes. It is important that the dough chills for at least 2 hours. This allows the flavours to meld together and the dough becomes firm enough to roll out without tearing. It also makes sure that the cookies don't spread out when they bake.
No. The gingerbread hardens as it cools. Leave it on the baking tray to cool slightly before trying to move it to a wire rack. It will then be firmer and easier to move.
The recipe
Vegan Halloween Gingerbread
Equipment
- 1 heavy bottomed saucepan
- 1 Large mixing bowl
- 1 Spatula
- cling film or a Ziploc bag
- Baking trays
- baking paper
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 1 gingerbread man cookie cutter
- 3 small bowls
- 3 spoons
- 3 Piping bags
Ingredients
For the biscuits
- 150 g vegan butter
- 125 g dark muscavado sugar
- 100 g golden syrup
- 50 g treacle
- 375 g self raising flour
- 3 teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 pinch salt
For the decoration
- 150 g icing sugar
- 6 tablespoon water
- Red and black gel food colouring
- Edible eyes
Instructions
- Add the butter, sugar, golden syrup and treacle to a heavy bottomed pan and melt over a low heat.
- Once melted, leave to cool for 5 minutes.
- Add the flour and spices to a large mixing bowl then pour in the butter and sugar mix, stirring until it comes together in a ball of dough.
- Wrap the dough in clingfilm then chill in the fridge for 2 hours or ideally overnight.
- Pre-heat your oven to 180 C / 350 F / gas mark 4.
- Line baking trays with baking paper.
- Once the dough has chilled and become firm, lightly dust a work surface and roll out the dough until roughly 5mm thick.
- Using your desired cookie cutter, cut out your gingerbread shapes.
- Transfer the gingerbread to your baking trays then place into the centre of your oven for 10 minutes.
- Take the gingerbread out of the oven and leave to cool on the baking trays until they have cooled slightly and firmed up.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Once the gingerbread is cold, mix up the icing sugar and water until you have a stiff but pipeable icing.
- Divide the icing between 3 bowls and colour some red and some black.
- Fill 3 piping bags with the 3 different colours (white, red and black).
- Pipe dots and stick the edible eyes onto the gingerbread men.
- Pipe the remaining details such as bandages, bones and fangs.
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