GingerBOV House Recipe

It's the time of year when thoughts at our Kitchen + Bar turn to all things sugar and spice.

Bake-Off is over, and if you're feeling the withdrawal symptoms, we have the perfect antidote. Our very own #GingerBOV house!

OK, the auditorium might have been pushing it a bit (no-one's oven is that big) so we went for the Georgian front (and to mark the 10th anniversary of the auditorium refurbishment - we've made it without a roof!)

There's also a hint of orange - the fruit that used to be eaten by theatregoers here in the 18th Century. 

Orange Gingerbov House

Ingredients:

250g Unsalted Butter

200g Dark Brown Muscovado Sugar

8 tbsp golden syrup

650g plain flour – plus extra for dusting

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

4 tsp ground ginger

Zest and juice half an orange

Icing

12 tbsp icing sugar

Juice half an orange

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 170C, gas mark 3.
• Line 2 large baking trays with baking parchment
• Melt the butter, sugar, syrup, zest and juice of half an orange in a medium saucepan, stirring occasionally, then remove from the heat once all melted
• Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into a bowl
• Stir the melted ingredients into the dry ingredients to make a stiff dough. Once it is starting to come together is worth just using your hands to knead it all together
• Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and roll to a thickness of about a £1 coin
• Using the template, cut out all the shapes needed. You will need to re-roll out to get all of the shapes out of them.
• Place the pieces on to the baking trays – make sure they’re not close together as they spread – will need to do in batches.
• The big front and back pieces will take around 15 minutes, the sides and roof will take between 10-12 minutes. They are ready when golden brown and not too soft (they will harden as they cool)
• Remove from the oven to cool.
• Mix the icing sugar and orange juice with a bit of water until you get a thick icing – should just be dropping off the spoon
• And then decorate your BOV Gingerbread!

This recipe is enough to make the whole gingerbread BOV but without the roof!

If you want to build it with the roof then make a further ¼ mixture of gingerbread

EXTRA RECIPE: If you just want to make mini Bristol Old Vic biscuits and stars then ½ the mixture. You can also turn these into Christmas decorations by putting a hole in the top of them with either a skewer or chopstick whilst still warm – you need to do it as soon as you get them out of the oven.