You can make gingerbread people or animals for a children’s party, stars for teenagers and hearts for Valentine’s Day. You can get as creative as you like with icing and decorating the biscuits.
Makes 10–20 biscuits | Prep: 30 minutes, plus chilling | Cook: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
Biscuits
350g (12.oz) plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
A pinch of salt
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
125g (4.oz) butter, diced
150g (5.oz) soft light brown sugar
1 egg
4 tbsp golden syrup
Icing
200g (7oz) icing sugar
2–3 tsp just-boiled water
Instructions:
Line one or two large baking sheets with non-stick baking paper.
Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spices into a bowl or food processor. Add the butter and mix or rub in until it resembles fine crumbs. Stir in the light brown sugar.
Lightly beat the egg and syrup together, add to the dry ingredients and mix until you have a dough. Wrap in a clean, dry tea towel or beeswax wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/170°C fan/gas 4.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to about 5mm (. inch) thick, cut out the biscuits and place on a lined baking sheet, spacing them well apart. Re-roll the trimmings to make more biscuits.
Bake the biscuits for 8–10 minutes until they are just beginning to brown at the edges. Leave on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes until they begin to firm up. Using a palette knife, carefully transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the icing, mix the icing sugar with the just-boiled water until you have a thick, smooth icing. Pipe or drizzle the icing over the biscuits.
About the book
Every trip to a National Trust site wouldn't be complete without a visit to one of their cafes where hearty food feels like the very best home cooking.
National Trust Favourite Recipes is a heart-warming book that includes 80 classic recipes for home-cooked meals that will make your day, with seasonality and sustainability at its core.
National Trust Favourite Recipes is available now.