MORNING TEA ON A MONDAY: I HEART GINGERBREAD

I've been a bit obsessed with gingerbread houses of late, I have been spending way too much time on Pinterest looking at epic gingerbread houses that I would LOVE to make. I'm not sure if I'll attempt one this year but definitely will be on the cards for next year! I do try and bake gingerbread biscuits every year, usually in the shape of buttons. I stack them up and store them in jars like you would if they were real buttons, they're great little gifts and they keep for about 2 weeks so its the perfect baked good to post or to bake ahead of time. With this batch I just used a simple heart cookie cutter. Clementine and Adam got in on the rolling and cutting and made some angels, moons, rabbits, a Yoda that looked like he was frozen in Carbonite instead of Han Solo (nerd), oh and a ridiculous giant heart with illegible writing (pfffft).

These biscuits are the best tea dunking biscuit, which means they're PERFECT for morning tea! I tend to use fresh ginger instead of ginger powder, only because for some reason I never seem to have ginger powder- you know that item on your shopping list that is cursed, that you ALWAYS forget to buy? well, ginger powder is it for me. So I just gave up and started using fresh, it seems to give the biscuit a lighter kick of heat/spice than the powder would. You can also use treacle instead of golden syrup too, treacle will give you a darker colour. Also if you want a gingerbread that's firm but slightly soft and chewy go with 2/3 cup of syrup or treacle and if you want a hard snappy biscuit then reduce the syrup to 1/2 cup.

GINGERBREAD BISCUITS

recipe adapted from Donna Hay

makes approximately 2 dozen biscuits, depending on size of cookie cutter.

125g unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 - 2/3 cup golden syrup
2 1/2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger or 2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Preheat oven to 160°C.
Place the butter and sugar in an electric mixer and beat until pale and creamy.
Add the golden syrup, flour, ginger and bicarbonate of soda and beat until the mixture just comes together to form a smooth dough.
Roll the dough out between 2 sheets of  baking paper to 4mm thick and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Cut out your biscuits , re-rolling the dough as necessary.
Place them on baking trays lined with baking paper and bake for approx 8-12 minutes or until golden. Cooking time all depends on how large your biscuits are. My hearts were done at the 8 minute mark. *If they are looking golden around the edges and slightly firm but still soft in the center (being careful not to burn yourself when touching them as they will be hot!) then take them out as they will firm up when cooling on the hot trays. If you only have one baking tray and need to transfer to a cooling rack, just gently slide them off using a spatula.
I tend to keep mine plain and simple but if you want to decorate them just make a really stiff icing out of icing sugar and water. Put a few desert spoonfuls of icing in a bowl and add a few drops of water until you get desired consistency. Add to a piping bag or use a small pallet knife to frost!

Store in an air tight container for up to 2 weeks.