A rare look at Buckingham Palace’s kitchen at Christmas

It’s not everyday Buckingham Palace opens its private rooms to the public, but the royals are sharing a sneak peak inside their fabulous kitchen ahead of Christmas day.

The palace chefs are busy preparing for the festivities with plenty of baking and have revealed some of the family’s favourite treats to enjoy on the special day.

One of their most popular recipes are the Christmas gingerbread biscuits — and the royal chefs generously showed us how to create the delicious biscuits from scratch.

For anyone thinking about making their own gingerbread biscuits, one of the royal chefs recommends making the dough “the night before”.

“Its always best to let the dough rest, so it’s great if you can make the dough the night before,” one of the Royal Pastry Chefs revealed. “You can also roll out the dough, cut the shapes and put them in a freezer for an hour. This ensures they keep their shape nicely.”

The biscuits can then be decorated with icing — you can even personalise them with your loved one’s name. Once the icing is completely dry, you can loop a ribbon through the biscuits and then hang them on the tree as decorations.

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Christmas is one of the busiest times of the year for the royal kitchen, which also caters the private dinners and functions at the palace.

While Christmas keeps the chefs busy, the Queen’s diet is said to be relatively low-key for the rest of the year.

Former Buckingham Palace chef Darren McGrady, who later worked at Kensington Palace for Princess Diana, told The Telegraph the Queen “was not a foodie” and preferred milder flavours at the table.

McGrady said that for Queen, meal time was more about the people around her than the food in front of her. This is in stark contrast to her husband Prince Philip, who McGrady said is passionate about food and trying new flavours.

“She eats to live, unlike Prince Philip who loves to eat and would stand and talk food all day,” McGrady said.

In addition to opening their kitchen doors to the public this year, the Palace also generously shared their gingerbread biscuits recipe, so you eat like a Queen this Christmas, too.

Gingerbread biscuits

Ingredients

• 200 Grams Self-Raising Flour
• 1 teaspoon of Ground Ginger
• 1 teaspoon of Mixed Spice
• 100 Grams Unsalted Butter
• 75 Grams of Dark Brown soft Sugar
• 25 Grams Granulated Sugar for dusting
• 45 Grams Milk
• Icing to decorate

Method

1. Sift together the flour and spices, add the diced butter and crumb together with your fingertips.
2. Add the milk to form a paste. Wrap in film and allow to rest for minimum 2 hours (best left over night).
3. Pre heat the oven to 180C.
4. Roll out to approximately 3mm (but depends on the size of the cookie you wish to make), cut shapes out and lay on to greaseproof paper or silicon mat sprinkle with a little granulated sugar before baking at 180 degrees until set.
5. Allow to cool fully on a cooling rack before icing with your choice of design.

Have you ever made gingerbread biscuits from scratch? What do you eat for Christmas lunch?