Andy has been off baking again, and away from the fun she’s been having with wedding cake (that’s a story for another day), she’s also been creating other treats. This is one would be perfect for Caketober, if you’re more of a biscuit than cake fan. Ideal for dunking in your tea at your desk.

_________________________________________

I was recently asked to bake gingerbread hearts for my friends wedding. Fun you might think, yummy it is. Nightmare for me though. I LOVE biscuits and especially gingerbread. I prefer crunchy, strong flavoured gingerbread but seriously, I’ll be happy with soft and mild too. So when I was asked to bake, I knew I had to put my own issues aside and do a practice bake. I like to borrow recipes from friends, I think baking is best when it’s shared and I love using recipe recommendations or family favourites. My friend Kirsty told me her favourite recipe and I just changed it up a bit to make it stronger. So here goes.

Gingerbread biscuits

Ingredients:

200g butter

400g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

4 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp mixed spice

100g treacle

100g light muscovado sugar

2 tbsp milk

Method:

 

1. Put butter, sugars and treacle in a bowl and melt slowly either carefully in a microwave or over a pan of warm water until sugar has dissolved and butter has melted. If you do this over a pan don’t let the bowl touch the water.  Remove from heat and leave to cool. 

 

 

2. Sift flour, baking powder, and ginger and spices into a bowl.

 

 

3. Stir into the cooled butter and sugar mix, add milk, and stir with a wooden spoon until you have a dough.

4. Turn dough out onto a floured board and knead lightly to bring it together. Wrap and stick in fridge for about an hour.

5. Preheat oven to 180c. Make sure your oven is either very accurate (they never are) or use a removable oven thermometer. Take dough out of fridge and leave for 5 mins.

6. Roll dough to about 5mm thick (on a floury surface) and cut into lovely heart shapes, men I used here in my test bake or whatever takes your fancy.

 

 

7. Bake for 8-10 mins, or until golden coloured, take out of oven, cool on tray until firm, then transfer to a wire rack. The longer you bake the crunchier they will be.

 

 

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do – let me know if you make the recipe and how you get on!