One of my Twitter friends asked for this recipe a few days ago and since she's always so nice to me it seemed a shame not to post it (and make a batch of biscuits for myself, naturally). Why not make a batch for someone you like?
The recipe was pinched from one that my mother pinched from a friend, so I have no idea where it originally came from, and I've made one or two changes along the way as well, mainly to make them just a shade less sweet and ultra gingery. This recipe makes quite a lot - about two dozen biscuits, as I always mean to make the remainder into cheesecake or something once they're stale, but we've never yet had any left long enough to go stale...
Perfect ginger biscuits:
7oz unsalted butter
1lb self raising flour
5oz caster sugar
3 rounded tbsp ground ginger (yes, tablespoons. This is a seriously gingery recipe)
1 1/2 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
8oz golden syrup
2oz black treacle
- Heat the oven to 160 degrees centigrade, and cover a baking tray in parchment paper (or use a non-stick tray if you have one lying around)
- Mix all the dry ingredients and stir in the butter until combined - my misture usually looks a bit breadcrumby at this point
- Warm the treacle and golden syrup in the microwave or on the hob until runny (but not boiling, or you'll really hurt yourself if you spill it!)
- Mix treacle and syrup in with the butter/dry ingredients and stir until well mixed
- Break of lumps and form 1 1/2" balls and place well apart (at least 3" I reckon) on baking tray. I usually have to cook my biscuits in several batches as I can only fit 6 on my tiny little baking tray
- Bake for 10 minutes. the biscuits should rise, then fall a little, and be a light golden brown colour. If they turn a darker toffee colour then they've gone a bit over, but they're still pretty good dipped in tea!
- Leave to rest for a few minutes on baking tray before moving to a wire rack to cool fully - they first come out of the oven they're really soft, so will break up if you try to move them.