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With Christmas merely two weeks away, festive fever is gripping households across the nation. From last-minute present hunting to browsing seasonal markets and preparing the Christmas feast, everyone's embracing the yuletide atmosphere. A delightfully straightforward gingerbread recipe has emerged, already winning over home bakers with its simplicity and scrumptious results.

This wonderfully uncomplicated method delivers mouth-watering sweet delights perfect for the entire household to enjoy. Armed with just a handful of ingredients, this "ultimate" gingerbread serves as an ideal treat throughout the Christmas period, reports the Mirror. Home cooks who've already given it a go are absolutely smitten with the results, giving it a four out of five rating on the Good Food website.

Featured on the Good Food platform, chef Liberty Mendez unveiled her foolproof "ultimate easy gingerbread" recipe.

Requiring merely 20 minutes of preparation and a swift 15-minute bake, this method couldn't be more straightforward.

Liberty highlights its brilliance for getting little ones involved in the kitchen action.

She explained, "Make some gingerbread stars to hang from your Christmas tree. This biscuit dough is extremely forgiving if overworked, so it's perfect for baking with children."

Ingredients

• 100g salted butter
• Three tbsp golden syrup
• 100g dark muscovado sugar
• Half tsp bicarbonate of soda
• One tbsp ground ginger
• One tsp ground cinnamon
• 225g plain flour
• 50g icing sugar

Method

Start by warming the salted butter, golden syrup and muscovado sugar together in a small saucepan, stirring now and then to ensure they blend seamlessly.

Once combined, set the mixture aside and allow it to cool slightly. Next up, it's dough-making time; begin by blending the bicarbonate of soda with the ginger, cinnamon and flour in a large bowl.

Once thoroughly mixed, add the sweet concoction and stir it through to combine with the dry ingredients.

The next step involves getting your hands messy as you shape and mould the dough. At this stage, the dough will be quite soft, but don't worry, it will firm up once refrigerated.

Once you've shaped the dough to your liking, place it on a sheet of greaseproof paper and mould it into a rectangle. Cover it with another sheet of paper, roll the dough out to about half a centimetre thick, and leave it on a baking tray.

With the paper still sandwiching the dough, pop it into the fridge for an hour to chill. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 190°C/170°C fan/gas mark 5 and line another baking tray with greaseproof paper.

After the chilling period, remove the dough from the fridge and use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes. Space them apart on the tray and bake for approximately 10-12 minutes, although the exact timing may vary depending on the size of your cookie cutter.

Once out of the oven, allow them to cool completely before preparing some icing to drizzle and decorate the cooled cookies. Those who have tried this recipe have expressed their appreciation for its simplicity and effectiveness.

One user said of the recipe: "The recipe was simple, and the instructions were easy to follow. Overall, the gingerbread came out perfect! The recipe is perfect for Christmas, and engaging for children as well. Definitely trying this again!"