Christmas gingerbread biscuits
Gingerbread biscuits
Christmas biscuits that will brighten any holiday, baking and icing.
Equipment
- Baking Tray
- Baking paper
- Biscuit cutters in various Christmas themed shapes
- Rolling Pin
- Mini food processor
- Piping Nozzle - small hole
- Piping bag - small size
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp treacle or molasses
- 2 tbsp golden syrup
- 4 cm fresh ginger root
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 175 g soft brown sugar gula merah or demerara
- 350 g plain flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 125 g unsalted butter
- 1 large egg
Royal Icing
- 30 g egg whites
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 250 g icing sugar
Instructions
Preparation
- Preheat the oven 180°C.
- Cut baking paper to fit the baking tray and set aside.
Biscuit Dough
- Add the ginger, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon to the flour.
- Sift the flour and spices into the food processor bowl.
- Cut the butter into even cubes.
- Add the butter to the food processor bowl and pulse until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. There should be no large lumps of butter left.
- Add the brown sugar and pulse until well mixed.
- Crack the egg into a bowl. Next add the vanilla essence, treacle and golden syrup with the egg.
- Peel and finely grate the ginger into the egg mixture.
- Whisk the egg mixture until the ginger, treacle and golden syrup have been fully combined with the egg.
- Turn the food processor onto the lowest setting whilst slowly pouring the egg mixture into the bowl. Stop the food processor once you a dough has formed.
- Lightly sprinkle the bench with flour.
- Tip the very soft dough out onto a floured bench, and shape into a circle. Cover the dough with clingfilm and rest in the fridge for up to an hour until firm.
Rolling and shaping
- Lightly sprinkle the bench with flour.
- Remove the dough from the fridge.
- Roll out the dough in one direction, turn 90° right, the roll again, turn 90° right. this will prevent the dough from sticking and create a circle.Sprinkle a little flour if your dough gets tacky.If your dough becomes very difficult to work, place back in the fridge for 15 mins and try again.
- Place the baking tray with the baking paper next to you.
- Use your biscuit cutter to cut out all the biscuits. Place each biscuit spaced out on the baking tray.The school baking tray is larger enough for 4 rows of 5 biscuits. However if you have a smaller tray at home you can rest the reminder of the cut biscuits in the fridge while baking.
- The left over dough can be smooshed together and rolled out again. Cut out more biscuits.
Baking
- Bake the biscuits at 180°C on the middle shelf for 10- 12 mins, until the bottom is brown.
- Allow to cool.
Icing
- Put the egg white and lemon juice in a bowl. Whisk until well combined.
- Sift the icing sugar into the egg mixture
- Whisk (use the paddle attachment)for 5 mins.
- Close cover the icing or place in a bag if you want to
Decoration
- Add 1/4 tsp of water to your icing so you can pipe your edge icing as shown in the picture.-For flood icing you may need 1- 2 tsps and food colouring paste
- Place the piping nozzle in the piping bag. Fill up to 1/3 of the bag with icing.
- Cut the end of the bag and begin piping. Twist the end of the bag so there is pressure and the icing can flow out.
- Apply the icing to the cookie by squeezing the at the top (not the middle - think toothpaste) a string of icing will come out. Drape the string around the biscuit in a pattern or around the edge by steadily moving the bag around.If you what to fill in the cookie use flood icing.
- Add decorations while the icing is wet. Royal icing will dry hard.
- Keep in the fridge in an airtight container and eat within 3 days.
Nutrition
Calories: 209kcalCarbohydrates: 38gProtein: 2gFat: 5gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 23mgSodium: 65mgPotassium: 72mgFiber: 1gSugar: 24gVitamin A: 170IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 18mgIron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!