I make gingerbread biscuits every year. I don’t know why as I gorge on far too many of them. They are seriously addictive! They’re so simple to make although the secret to perfectly shaped biscuits is to cut them again after baking. Shhhh. I didn’t tell you that.
I have to admit this isn't may original recipe though, I have revised it having found a much better rest with eggless doughs. I've also swapped from using light brown sugar to caster. Although recipes will swap soft brown sugar with dark soft brown sugar to get a different colour of biscuit, caster sugar results in a nice bite. I've decided, and the photos demonstrate this, that if you want a darker biscuit you can swap the syrup for treacle so you can get the change in flavour and colour but the biscuits stay nice and crisp.
Makes up to 30
Hands-on Time inc. 15 minutes (plus cooling and chilling)
Baking Time 9 minutes
Ingredients
130g Unsalted butter
110g Caster sugar
4 tbsp Golden syrup
325g plus extra for dusting Plain flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp Fine salt
1/4 tsp Ground cloves
2 tsp Ground ginger
1 tsp Ground cinnamon
1 Egg white, large (optional)
250g Icing sugar (optional)
Equipment
Saucepan
Spatula
Large mixing bowl
Fork
Rolling pin
Cookie cutter(s)
Baking parchment
Baking sheets
Wire rack
Piping bag (optional)
Add the butter, sugar, and syrup to a saucepan.
Place over a medium heat and stir until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.
Remove and leave to cool.
Add the flour, bicarb, salt, cloves, ginger, and cinnamon to the large bowl and combine using the fork.
Pour the contents of the saucepan over the flour mixture. Stir using the spatula until the dough comes together.
Set aside until it’s completely room temp.
Dust the worktop before placing the dough down and dusting with a little more flour.
Using the rolling pin, roll the dough out so it’s at least 5mm thick.
Take your cutter and cut as many shapes as possible. Do not twist the cutter, just press firmly down.
I find it is easier to cut out all of the shapes and then remove the dough surrounding them.
Place the shapes onto a piece of baking parchment and pop into the fridge to cool and set.
Repeat the above steps with the remaining dough. When placing additional sheets of biscuits into the fridge, you can place one on top of the other.
Leave to chill in the fridge for at least 60 minutes.
Clean your cutter, you will need it later.
Preheat the oven to 190°C/170°C(Fan)/375°F/Gas mark 5.
Once the oven has warmed up transfer one set of biscuits onto a baking sheet.
Pop into the oven for at least 9 minutes until gloriously golden very tiny cracks over a smooth shiny surface.
If the biscuits have spread a little and you want crisp sharp edges now is the time to right that wrong. Immediately recut your biscuits. You MUST do this immediately after removing them from the oven.
Transfer the biscuits to a wire rack to cool.
Repeat the above steps with the remaining batches of biscuits. Do leave intervals between baking so your oven returns back to the set temperature.
If you want to decorate the biscuits with royal icing, add the icing sugar to a clean bowl.
Add the egg white and beat until you have a thick icing which has a thick ribbon. You may need to add a drop of water to achieve this.
Transfer to a piping bag and pipe away.
To achieve a simple snowflake look, pipe crossing lines over the top of the biscuit, then pipe Vs pointing towards the centre along each line.
Leave to set at room temperature.
Enjoy!
