Gingerbread Biscuits (Cookies)
These gingerbread biscuits are crisp and hold their shape. Sweet and buttery with plenty of warm spice. A perfect festive baking project!Makes around 40 biscuits, depending on how thick you roll out the dough and the size of the shapes.Make sure butter is soft; it will make the job of creaming far easier.
Servings: 40 biscuits, depending on size and thickness
Equipment
- 2 baking sheets
Ingredients
- 225 g unsalted butter (softened)
- 170 g soft dark brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 250 g plain flour
- 90 g cornflour/corn starch
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground nutmeg half a whole nutmeg
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
(Optional) Royal Icing
- 15 g egg white about half the white in one egg
- 100 g icing sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon cream of tartar
Instructions
- Cream Butter & Sugar – put the softened butter and sugar in the stand-mixer bowl with the blade attachment. Cream at low-medium speed until well-combined with no streaks of butter. You will need to stop and use a flexible spatula to help it along.225 g unsalted butter170 g soft dark brown sugar
- Egg – whisk the egg into a small bowl. Add the egg to the butter and sugar. Blend until well-combined. Don’t worry if it looks a little curdled at this point.1 egg
- Dry Ingredients – add the salt. Sift the flour, cornflour and spices together in a large bowl. Tip roughly a third of the flour mix into the wet ingredients. Mix at low speed until combined. Use a flexible spatula to make sure all the flour is incorporated. Add the rest of the dry ingredients in two more batches.250 g plain flour90 g cornflour/corn starch1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger1 ½ teaspoons ground nutmeg¼ teaspoon salt2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- Baking Paper – lay a sheet of baking paper on the work surface roughly the size of your baking sheet. Pile roughly half the soft sticky dough into the centre. Lay another sheet of baking paper over the top to sandwich the dough. Press on the dough with the palms of your hand to start to ease out.
- Roll Out - switch to a rolling pin. If the dough starts to get close to the edges of the baking paper, use a butter knife to gently slice off some dough to trim. Add this section elsewhere and roll out again between the sheets of baking paper to merge. Once you have finished rolling, drag the baking paper ‘sandwich’ onto the baking sheet. Transfer to the fridge for around 30 minutes (or longer is fine).
- Preheat Oven – to 160°C
- Repeat Step 5 - with the remaining half of the dough.
- Cut Biscuits –take one baking sheet out portion out. Gently peel off the top layer of baking paper. Cut out your shapes, allowing a little space between them. Lift away the dough surrounding your shapes and set aside. Don’t move them now until cooked and cooled slightly.
- Bake – 10-12 minutes.
- Repeat Step 8 – with the remaining half of the dough
- Re-roll Scraps – Combine the leftover dough from both batches. Re-roll to cut out more shapes as required.
- (optional) Royal Icing - whisk the egg white with an electric hand whisk. Add in the sugar little by little and whisk at low speed until incorporated. Thin the icing with tiny amounts of water to get the desired consistency for piping. You can add drops of colouring or flavour to customise.15 g egg white100 g icing sugar⅛ teaspoon cream of tartar
Notes
You can make the dough in advance and keep it in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or freezer for up to 3 months before using. Store in a flattened ball that is well wrapped. Bring to room temperature before proceeding to the rolling out step.
Storage
Store the biscuits at room temperature.
They keep for up to two weeks but will soften slightly after 2-3 days.