Ingredients
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440 g plain Flour
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1 tbsp ground Ginger
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1 tsp Mixed Spice
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½ tsp ground White Pepper
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½ tsp ground Cinnamon
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1 tsp Baking Soda
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125 g Butter
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220 g light Muscovado Sugar
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1 Egg
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75 g Golden Syrup
Directions
Ginger, just like chilli, is a hot spice. It literally warms you up, so no wonder its flavour evokes the winter season like nothing else. At Christmas we make gingerbread decorations for our bakeries, and bake tiny gingerbread men to top our Christmas cupcakes (and decapitate them for Halloween!). This is the perfect gingerbread biscuit for building a gingerbread house or making tree decorations it works with all kinds of intricate shapes.
We like properly spicy gingerbread that you can really feel going down the back of your throat. The white pepper in this recipe enhances the other warming flavours. You could swap the golden syrup for honey for a more old-fashioned biscuit, or, to take the spicy, almost savoury flavours even further, use black treacle. To pack a seriously gingery punch, use the syrup from a jar of preserved stem ginger.
Steps
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1
Done
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Sift together the flour, spices and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl then scatter over the cubes of cold butter. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs, with no large lumps of butter left. Stir in the muscovado sugar. |
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2
Done
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In a separate bowl beat the egg into the golden syrup with a fork, then add to the flour mixture and stir well until combined. You will have a soft dough. Form into a rough rectangle, wrap in cling film and chill for at least 1 hour, or overnight. |
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3
Done
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When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3. Lightly dust the worktop and a rolling pin with flour and roll out the chilled dough to a thin sheet, 3–5 mm thick. |
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4
Done
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Dip your cutter lightly in flour and cut out as many shapes as possible from the dough, rekneading and rolling as necessary. Bake for 10–15 minutes until just crisp. Smaller sizes will need less time, fans of crispy biscuits should leave for longer. As the dough is already dark; it’s difficult to judge these for doneness by colour, so if you’re really keen to get your timing spot on, make one biscuit, let it cool completely and use it as a gauge. These keep very well in an airtight container for up to a week. |
