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I decided to make these biscuits with my 3 girls to brighten up a couple of evenings this week. At this time of year all of us are feeling weary, grumpy and usually almost frozen when we get home from the school run. There's nothing like cranking up the oven and baking treats to warm both our hearts and the house.
These are SO easy to make, I made sure all three girls were able to take turns in the making process and they each got their own portion of dough to roll out and cut biscuits out of. Using piping bags to ice the biscuits is great for developing fine motor skills, as is drizzling icing with spoons if you can't be bothered making piping bags from baking parchment - not that I am admitting to anything. ;o)
These biscuits are great for Christmas Fair Cake Stalls or Bake Sales and make fab teacher gifts or an easy and tasty addition to Homemade Christmas Hampers.
I was recently sent some Clover Block to try, you can use it exactly the same as butter but has 30% less saturated fat. Great for festive bakes as it means you can feel a little less guilty indulging in baked treats. You can check out their website here and find their Facebook page where you can find out news and offers about Clover plus our their new Clover Hearts rewards scheme.
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| I love the baking inspiration with the measurements on the back of the pack |
Gingerbread Christmas Biscuits
350g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
100g Clover, diced
175g light soft brown sugar
1 large free range egg
4 tbsp golden syrup
Preheat the oven to 190C/170C fan/ 375F/gas 5. Put the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs. We used a nifty gadget I purchased from my local supermarket for £3. It means that there are not lots of hot hands in the dough rubbing the flour through, it cuts down on mess and makes taking turns easier as there are no floury hands that need sorting which can slow down the making process.
Stir through the sugar, add the egg and syrup then mix to form a dough.
Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and knead to bring the dough together. Divide the dough into batches. Roll out each batch with a lightly floured rolling pin until its about 0.5cm/5mm or 1/4 inch thick.
Cut out shapes with biscuit cutters, make a hole in the top of each with a straw if you want to be able to hang up the biscuits. Put the biscuit shapes on baking trays lined with baking paper then bake for 10 - 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the icing either use a mixture of a little water and 200g of icing sugar mixed until you get the consistency you want, or use a packet of Royal Icing Mix from the supermarket and follow the directions on the pack. I use gel colours to colour the icing which can be purchased from most large supermarkets.
Drizzle or pipe on the icing using a piping bag or a teaspoon. Adding sprinkles, chocolate beans, edible glitter or other suitable decorations.
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