Ginger star cookie Christmas tree

Gingerbread Dough:

1. Preheat oven to 150°C (130°C fan-forced).
2. Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, margarine, sugar, golden syrup, egg yolks, and a2 Milk® Full Cream to a food processor.
3. Blend until the mixture starts to come together into a dough. If the dough is too dry, add a little extra milk, 1 tsp at a time.
4. Turn out onto a clean surface and bring together into a ball with your hands. The dough should be reasonably stiff but pliable.
5. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Rolling and Cutting

1. Lightly flour a work surface. Roll out the dough to approximately 3-4mm thickness.
2. Using star-shaped cookie cutters in graduated sizes (from about 10cm down to 2cm), cut out stars. You'll need approximately 15 stars in descending sizes.
3. Transfer stars to baking trays lined with baking paper, leaving 2cm between each. Don't crowd the tray as they will expand slightly.
4. Bake for 8-12 minutes depending on size — smaller stars will cook faster. Check from 8 minutes. They should be golden across the top and just starting to darken around the edges.
5. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely on trays.

Royal Icing

1. Whisk together the icing sugar, egg white, and lemon juice until smooth and thick enough to hold its shape.

Assembly

1. Starting with the largest star as the base, stack stars from largest to smallest, using a small dab of royal icing between each layer to secure.
2. Dust the finished tree with icing sugar for a snowy effect. Display as a centrepiece.