It seems when Christmas arrives, some of us embrace it wholeheartedly, some run for the hills, but most of us fall somewhere in between – escaping the worst of the madness, but bringing some of the nicer parts with us.  If that third group includes you, then you’ll understand that the best Christmas food is portable and expedition-friendly – like these gingerbread mountains.

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Makes: about 20 ‘alps’

Weight: 600g

Volume: 500ml

Calories: 2136

Cost: $3.75

Time: 30min

Fuel: n/a

Ingredients

2 cups flour

100g dark brown sugar

¼ cup golden syrup

1 egg yolk

85g butter

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp white pepper

¼ tsp allspice

Icing ‘snowpack’

1 ¼ cup icing sugar

1 egg white

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp cold water

Method

Combine all the ingredients together in a food processor until homogenous, then place onto baking paper and chill for 30min (overnight is great if you’ve got time). Roll out the dough into a 5mm thick sheet and cut to the shapes of your preferred alps and place them on a tray lined with baking paper. Pre-heat the oven to 170℃ then bake the gingerbread for 10-15min or until firm.

Mix the egg white, icing sugar, lemon juice and water then whisk until stiff and pipe onto the peaks (if you don’t have an icing pipe, you can just cut a small hole in the corner of a plastic bag) allow to dry then store in an air-tight container until summit day!