Five tried and tested Christmas recipes

Mrs Bates's gingerbread people

Ingredients:

• 125g unsalted butter
• 100g dark muscovado sugar
• 4 tbsp golden syrup
• 325g plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp ground ginger

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 170C, gas mark 3. Line baking trays with baking parchment. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a medium saucepan, stirring occasionally, then remove from the heat.
2. Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into a bowl and stir the melted ingredients into the dry ingredients to make a stiff dough.
3. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and roll to a thickness of about 5mm. Dip biscuit cutters into flour before cutting the dough. Place the shapes onto the lined baking trays and bake, in batches, for 9-10 minutes until light golden brown.
4. Remove from the oven. While still warm, and using a skewer or chopstick, make any holes that you will need to hang up the biscuits with ribbon or to make a yuletide garland.
5. If you are decorating your Christmas cake with gingerbread people, make the holes in their arms so that ribbon can be threaded through at a later stage.
6. When completely cool, decorate with icing. The gingerbread biscuits can be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks.