Spiced Scandinavian Cookies
One of the joys of the nights starting to draw in is the thought of a log fire and any sort of warm alcohol. These lovely ginger and cinnamon biscuits are great with morning coffee, but also exceptional with a glass of mulled wine. They have a slightly soft texture, and the warmth of the ginger and spice gives you a little hint of festive treats yet to come.
It is a great biscuit recipe to make with kids, as not only does it hold its shape beautifully when used with cookie cutters, but also holds up well to repeated re-shaping and rolling.
The dough freezes well too, so you can bake a half batch and then save some for another day.
Ingredients
300g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
½tsp ground ginger
1tsp mixed spice
1tsp cinnamon
100g unsalted butter
100g soft brown sugar
2 free-range eggs
1 large tablespoon of golden syrup
200g icing sugar
a few drops lemon juice
Heat the oven to 170 C, 325 F. Sieve the flour, baking powder
and spices into a large bowl then rub in the butter to make fine
breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.
Mix the golden syrup and eggs together then pour over the flour/sugar mix and stir
to combine. Knead until smooth; it will be sticky, so cover and put in the
fridge for an hour.
Flour your rolling pin and board, then roll the dough out to about 5mm
thick. Cut out with biscuit cutters and place on greased baking sheets.
Bake for around 12 minutes until golden, then allow to cool before
removing from sheet.
To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add a few drops
of lemon juice to make a stiff paste. Pipe on to the biscuits using a bag,
or, make a slightly runnier mix and drizzle over using a fork. They make
a lovely gift when packaged into cellophane bags, with a pretty biscuit cutter
tied on with ribbon.
