Gingernuts

 

Another one of my husband's favourite things are Gingernut Biscuits, or cookies as they are known in North America.  Crisp and buttery and filled with the warmth of ginger.

 

You can buy them in the shops and those are quite nice, but Todd prefers it when I bake them from scratch.  The ones in the shops are a bit too hard for his liking.  His 81 year old noshers have a bit of a difficult time coping with them.

 

And to be honest, I am not fond of really hard things these days either.  When you get older the chance of breaking a tooth eating something hard increases.  Yes, you can dunk them in hot drinks, which will render them nice and soft, but I confess  . . .  I am not a real hot drink lover.

 

Neither am I photographer! ha ha  My friend Monique sent me this lovely presentation box for cupcakes or biscuits a long time ago.  I save it for special occasions. I thought I would dig it out today and do some nice photos with it. 

 

Presentation is clearly not my forte, but I do try . . .  besides this is about the cookies is it not? 

 

I do love that little Patisserie Shop box though  . . .  I do, I do, I do, I do, I do  . . .

 

These cookies are put together a bit differently than most.  You sift the flour, soda and salt together, along with the powdered ginger and mixed spice.  Mixed spice is a warm baking spice mixture that you can buy over here.  It is flavoured with cinnamon, coriander, ginger and cloves.  Its used a lot in British baking.  You can find my recipe to make your own here.  Its very easy and you will find it comes in very handy 

 

Once you have all of the dry ingredients sifted together, you stir in a quantity of brown sugar  . . .

 

After that you drop in butter, which you have cut into bits and you rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs  . . .

 

Finally you mix together some boiling water and golden syrup (you could also use corn syrup or maple syrup, or even honey if you wanted to).  You mix it together until the golden syrup melts into the water   . . . after which you stir it into the dry ingredients with a round bladed knife to make a soft dough.  That's it!

  

No eggs, no milk. Roll the dough into balls, place onto a paper lined baking sheet, press lightly down a tiny bit with your fingers and bake  . . . until they are set, and golden brown, crisp edged and scrumdiddlyumptious!  These smell heavenly when they are baking.

Yield: makes about 50

Author: Marie Rayner

Gingernuts

You can store these in an airtight container for up to 5 days.  If you like you can whisk together an icing and spread it  over top by whisking together 60g (1/2 cup) icing sugar with 1 TBS of soft butter and 2 to 3 tsp of lemon juice until smooth.  Allow to set before storing.

ingredients:

• 280g plain flour (2 cups)
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• 1 TBS ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp mixed spice
• 125g butter chopped into bits (1/2 cup)
• 200g soft light brown sugar (1 cup, lightly packed)
• 60ml boiling water (1/4 cup)
• 1 TBS golden syrup

instructions:

How to cook Gingernuts

1. Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Line a couple of baking sheets with baking parchment. Set aside.
2. Sift the flour, soda, ginger and mixed spice into a bowl. Stir in the brown sugar. Drop in the butter and rub together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Mix together the boiling water and golden syrup until the syrup melts. Add to the flour mixture to mix to a soft dough with a round bladed knife. Roll into balls using 2 heaped tablespoons of the mixture at a time Place on the baking trays, at least 2 inches apart. Flatten slightly with your fingertips. Bake for 15 minutes, or until well coloured and firm. Leave to cool on the baking trays for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat until all have been baked.
3. Store in an airtight container.

Created using The Recipes Generator

 

You can of course, ice these with a lemon icing, but I don't bother.  We love them just as they are!  Do note, it is possible to cut the recipe in half successfully.  I do that all the time as there are only two of us in this house and I shouldn't be eating sweets. ♥ 

Up Tomorrow: Dirty Fries with Fry Sauce