Gingerbread Dachshunds for World Dachshund Day

                           Dachshund: A half-a-dog high and a dog-and-a-half long (H L Mencken)

I recently joined Instagram after years of resisting because I wanted to view a private account hosted by my work, and I had to have an Instagram account so that the site owners could verify who I was.  However, I am now hooked - it is so easy and instant, and I can post all manner of things that might not otherwise be seen outside my phone.

My Instagram feed informed me that today is World Dachshund Day.  Hooray, I am up for that.  I have had a dachshund as a pet, and I love the little long backed, short legged dogs.  I am guilty of owning numerous pairs of Peter Alexander's Penny the Dachshund pajamas, so even though I no longer have a dachshund living with me, I am a card-carrying dachshund lover.

I have had a dachshund cookie cutter for a long time, so I decided to make dachshund cookies to celebrate World Dachshund Day.  I was reminded of why I had never used this cutter much - the skinny tail is a major pain to deal with.  However, I persevered to make 18 dachshund gingerbread cookies, using the gingerbread recipe from Margaret Fulton's The 12 Days of Christmas:   

I still had lots of gingerbread dough left over but I was over struggling with dachshunds, so I just cut out squares instead for the rest:

I also hate the endurance required to decorate cookies with royal icing, which plays havoc with my back and neck, but I once again persevered for all 18 dachshunds, and breathed a sigh of relief that there were not any more. 

These cookies are very cute, so I am happy with them, despite their flaws and the endurance task of making them.

If you would like to try Margaret Fulton's gingerbread, you will need:

1/4 cup golden syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (I substituted ground nutmeg)
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
125g softened chopped butter
1 beaten egg
2 1/4 cups plain flour

Put the golden syrup, sugar and spices in a heatproof bowl over simmering water and stir until the sugar melts.  Add the bicarbonate of soda, and as soon as the mixture bubbles, remove it from the heat.

Add the butter to the warm golden syrup mixture and stir until the butter has melted and the mixture is smooth.  Once the mixture has cooled, stir in the egg and 1 cup of the flour.  Add the rest of the flour and combine the ingredients with your hands to make a dough.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured bench and knead lightly until it comes together.

Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces.  Roll out each piece between two pieces of baking paper to a 5mm thickness, then chill in the fridge for half an hour.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line two baking trays with baking paper.

Remove the chilled dough from the fridge and cut out whatever shapes you desire, re-rolling the scraps and cutting until there is no more dough left.

Place the cut out cookies onto the baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes, rotating the trays top to bottom and front to back half way through the baking time.  Once the cookies are golden and firm, remove them from the oven and leave them to cool on the trays on wire racks.

Decorate as desired.