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| Grown-up Gingerbread Cookies 'The ginger flavour goes to every corner of my mouth.''The proportion of sweet to spicy is just right.' Tasters |
They are in the mould of 67's intensely spicy (in a good way) American Ginger Cookies, posted in 2016 and perennially popular with guys - sorry to be gender-ist! - who normally aren't keen on biscuits.
These cookies are more Swedish in style, and are rolled out to a dough rather than formed in balls. But they are just as complex in flavour, sensationally delicious and appealing. And they are ever so easy to put together.
The men in your household will adore you when presented with a plate of these.
The amount of sugar in the biscuit dough was reduced to take into account the icing; to get the best of the flavour and texture, they really need a sweet top. If you prefer lower sugar, replace the icing with (more expensive) melted bakers' white chocolate.
67 reduced cholesterol by replacing some butter with sunflower oil. As an experiment, half the cookies were rolled to about 1/4inch/1/2cm (the thickness of a £1 coin) while the other half were rolled to abut 3/10in/3/4cm thickness. See comments below for the result.
Cost: £2.50
Makes: 3-4 dozen
Ingreds:
120gm/2.1oz unsalted butter
3 x 15ml tablespoons sunflower oil
60gm/6.3oz soft brown sugar
76ml/2 1/2 fluid oz treacle/molasses
65gm/2.3oz finely diced firm pear
handful chopped fresh, or dried & reconstituted, cranberries
min 250-max 275gm/min 8.8-max 9.7oz wholemeal spelt flour
100gm/3.5oz plain spelt flour
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp fresh peeled ginger, grated or 1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cardomom
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp 5-spice powder or allspice
pinch of salt
Icing
2/3 cup sifted icing sugar
1 tbsp milk or water
Garnish: 5-6 pieces candied ginger finely diced
Method
- Line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper or silicone mat
- If pears are ripe & wet, spread them out on a paper towel to reduce dampness
- Melt butter with treacle and sugar; stir until blended; take off heat
- Stir in pears & cranberries
- Add minimum amount of flour, spices & salt; if more flour is needed, add some of the extra until the mix comes together to form a soft dough
- Wrap in cling film; refrigerate for a couple of hours or freeze.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 180c/160fan/350f/gas 4
- Roll out half the dough between 2 sheets greaseproof paper to 1/4inch/1/2cm - the thickness of a pound coin
- Roll the other half to 3/10in/3/4cm thick
- Cut out shapes; use a fish slice to transport from the cutting board to the cookie sheet
- Bake 10-12 mins; check at the half-way point -- if one side of the pan is browning faster than the other, turn the pan
- Re-roll & cut leftover dough
Icing:
- Mix icing sugar & liquid until it forms a thick-ish but pourable icing.
- Pour into a sealable sandwich bag and push the icing toward one of the corners.
- Cut a tiny bit off the corner of the bag and pipe the icing around the edges, if outlining the biscuits
- Cut a little more off the corner for filling in the edges or creating decorative flourishes
- Scatter over bits of candied ginger
- 'That is good gingerbread! The ginger flavour goes to every corner of my mouth. Love the thin ones; they're so crispy.' Political Agent
- 'Gingerbread should not be sweet; in these, the proportion of sweet to spicy is just right. The icing sugar with candied ginger is a good combination. I like the thick ones; they're nice and crumbly.' Dedicated cookie-muncher & Campaign Manager
*inspired by Rachel Khoo
More on NavBar: Recipes 1/Cookies
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This recipe has been adapted by B M Lee/ Bright Sun Enterprises. It may not be reproduced without the author's written permission.
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