Baking
Christmas cooking
Cookies
Ginger
Gingerbread men
Spice
Ginger spice cookies
I've been making these little beauties since I was about 10. I got the recipe from a book called 'Mmm...cookies and biscuits', by Shirley Bradstock. I received the book as a secret santa gift when I was in Brownies, and it probably was the book that really started my obsession with baking, and in particular, biscuits. So far, this is the best recipe for gingerbread biscuits that I have tried. It makes between 80-100 biscuits, depending on how thin you roll the dough. They keep for months in a cake tin and are delicious iced or plain.
You definitely need to chill the dough for about 30 minutes before rolling it out, don't skip this step! I also recommend having as many biscuit trays as will fit in your oven at one time (i.e if you have three shelves then invest in three trays), otherwise you will be there for hours trying to bake all the cookies. This is my take on Shirley's recipe:
Ingredients
1 cup of butter, melted (I use margarine too) - allow to cool slightly before you start
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup golden syrup
2 tsp fresh grated ginger
2 tbsp vinegar
5 cups plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
Method
1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees celsius (180 for fan-forced) and grease your biscuit trays
2. Beat the first 6 ingredients together well in a large bowl.
3. Sift in the remaining ingredients
4. Fold the dry ingredients in to the wet ingredients gently, then when it is combined, mix well.
5. Tip the dough out on to a large sheet of cling wrap, wrap it up and chill for 30 minutes
6. Turn the dough out on to a clean and floured surface, knead until a smooth consistency
7. Cut off half the dough and roll out to 1cm thick (put the remaining half back in the fridge)
8. Cut out cookies and place on your tray
9. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden
10. Repeat with the other half of the dough
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