Christmas Gingerbread Cookies, Sweetened with Monk Fruit

Method

1. Cut up 150g of unsalted butter, leave it to soften at room temperature, then beat it until light.
2. Add 72g of kOBE Monk Fruit Blend and beat until the butter and blend are light and fully combined.
3. Add 45g of kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, then 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1 chicken egg weighing 50 to 55g without the shell, and beat until combined.
4. Add 330g of cake flour, 4g of ginger powder, 4g of cinnamon powder, 3g of baking soda and 2g of salt, and beat steadily until combined.
5. Split the dough in two and roll each piece out 0.3cm thick.
6. Freeze the dough for 20 minutes to firm up.
7. Take the dough out and stamp out gingerbread people, bears, snowflakes or rounds. If the dough softens and will not lift, put it back in the freezer and start again.
8. Cut the remaining dough into 15g pieces, roll them into balls and shape them, or cut them into small long sticks.
9. Bake at 170 to 175 degrees C for 10 minutes, then let the cookies cool for 5 minutes.
10. Make royal icing: whip 63g of finely ground kOBE Monk Fruit Blend with 10g of egg white, half a teaspoon of vanilla extract and half a teaspoon of lemon juice.
11. Pipe the icing to decorate. Melted unsweetened dark chocolate chips, almonds and walnuts can go on as well.

Tips

• Only cold dough lifts out of the cutter with its lines intact, so any softened dough goes back into the freezer.
• A little chocolate ganache holds nuts and candy decorations firmly in place.
• Rolling the dough between two sheets of baking paper does away with dusting flour and keeps the cookies from drying out.
• The cookies have to be completely cool before the icing goes on, as any warmth makes it run.
• kOBE Monk Fruit Blend dissolves slowly, so the butter gets another 1 to 2 minutes of beating, until it feels free of grains.