Ginger Biscuits

Another festive treat, these biscuits are easy to make and even easier to eat. The crisp biscuit combined with the warmth from the ginger and cinnamon makes these very satisfying to crunch your way through far to many. I used a medium shaped star cutter for these biscuits, any other shape of cutter can be used. I was also in a lazy mode and didn't ice these but I will include a simple icing recipe that can easily be drizzled over the top. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

For the biscuits:
350g plain flour, plus extra for rolling out
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
125g butter
175g light brown sugar
1 egg
4 tbsp golden syrup

For the icing:
300g icing sugar
2 tbsp water - you may need more or less

Method:
Place the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon and butter in a food processor and pulse until it resembles bread crumbs (you can also rub it in by hand but this will take more time). Add in the sugar and mix again. Crack the egg into a bowl and add the golden syrup and beat together, I found this helps the golden syrup not to clump everything up. Add this in slowly mixing all the time. Once the dough has come together, place in a large freezer bag and kneed gently until it becomes smooth. Place the bag in the fridge for at least 20 minutes for the dough to set.

Preheat your oven to 180c fan. Take a large baking tray and dust lightly with flour. Lightly duct your work surface and rolling pin with flour and dip the cutting edge of the cutter in the flour as well to prevent the dough sticking. Take the dough from the fridge and flatten using your hands into a rough circle. Take the rolling pin and work from the centre out using gentle pressure, turning the dough with each roll and flipping the dough over a couple of times to ensure a smooth and even roll. Roll the dough to approximately 5mm thick.

Using your cutter, cut out as many biscuits as you can from the rolled out dough. Carefully peel the excess dough away and use a fish slice to remove the cut outs from the work surface and gently place them on the baking sheet, leaving around a 5mm gap between each as they expand when baked. Gather together the left over dough and gently kneed into a ball. Repeat the rolling out process until there is too little dough left to make anything.

Bake these biscuits for around 12 minutes until they are golden brown. They should still be slightly soft to the touch as they will harden as they cool. Place the tray of biscuits on a wire rack and leave to cool for 15-20 minutes. Remove the biscuits and place on the wire rack to finish cooling.

Once the biscuits are completely cool to touch, place the icing sugar in a bowl and gently mix in the water, a teaspoons worth at a time. Add water until the icing resembles double cream and coats the back of a spoon without dribbling off. Take a sandwich bag and put the icing inside. Cut off one of the bottom corners and use to drizzle the icing over the biscuits. You could also dip a spoon in the icing and drizzle it over.

These went down a real treat with my friends and family and are relatively simple to make. Please tag me using #diaryofadefectivehousewife when you bake these.