Gingerbread
I love the spice and nostalgia and versatility of gingerbread. Roll it out thin if you like it baked crisp, or if, like me, you like it soft and chewy, roll it out thickly. I cut these into Christmas tree shapes every December and decorate them with icing and powdered sugar as gifts. This is my son Henry’s favourite biscuit, the one he hopes to see in a jar in the pantry when he goes looking.
Makes approx. 20 (depending on the size of the cookie cutter you use - see my tips).
Ingredients 8
125 g butter, softened
100 g brown sugar
350 g treacle, see my tips
1 free-range egg yolk
375 g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice (pumpkin pie spice)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
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Method 6
Preheat your oven to 160°C (320°F).
Beat the and together with the until well mixed. Beat in the .
In a separate bowl, mix together the , , and , and then sieve or sift them into the mixture. Stir well to combine and then form the dough into a disc, cover in plastic wrap and rest in the fridge for half an hour.
After resting, roll the dough out on a floured board to 2 cm (¾ in) thickness and cut into circles with a 4 cm (1½ in) cookie cutter (see my tips).
When placing the biscuits on your baking tray, allow for spreading.
Bake for 12 minutes.
Buena Vista Farm's tips
If you don’t have treacle you can use golden syrup (light treacle) instead. It works nicely, but the biscuit won’t be quite as dark or soft. You can also replace the treacle with honey and you’ll get something closer to a honey jumble.
The thicker you roll and cut the dough, the softer the gingerbread will be. For hard-crunch gingerbread cut thinner and cook longer, for softer chewy gingerbread, cut thicker and cook for slightly less time.
These are best eaten in the first week; after that, they tend to go a bit soft.
