Ginger Biscuits
Extremely quick to make, loaded with ginger, a little crispy on the outside and with a chewy centre, these delicious biscuits are best served with a steaming, hot cup of tea.
Ingredients
- 100g unsalted butter
- 100g golden syrup
- 100g caster sugar
- 200g plain/all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- 2½ - 3½ teaspoons ground ginger (I use 3½, we like quite a strong ginger flavour.)
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt
Optional additions:
- 2 balls of stem ginger, finely chopped, roughly 35g - 40g
- 50g - 100g dark chocolate
Instructions
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Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients.
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Preheat oven to Fan Oven 160°C/180°C/350°F/Gas 4 and either grease your baking trays or line them with baking parchment.
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Heat the butter and syrup over a moderate heat until melted.
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Add the sugar, flour, baking powder, powdered ginger, (chopped stem ginger if using) and salt and thoroughly mix.
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Use a small ice cream scoop or a tablespoon to measure out roughly 16 – 18 balls of dough weighing roughly 30g each.
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Once you have divided the dough into balls, roll gently into a neater shape if necessary
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To cook the biscuits, place them spread out on a baking sheet – I get 4 – 6 per sheet depending on the size of the baking sheet.
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Baking one tray at a time: bake for 10 – 12 minutes. (I cook mine for 11 minutes.)
Baking two trays at a time: add one minute to the total time to cook. Bake for half this time and then quickly swap the trays over i.e. put the top tray on the lower shelf and the tray from the lower shelf and on the higher shelf and cook for the remaining time.
(So for one tray I cook for 11 minutes and 2 trays for 6 minutes, swap the trays and then another 6 minutes = 12 minutes on total.)
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The cookies are cooked when: they have spread out, are starting to brown on the edges and look ever so slightly underdone. They should still be soft in the middle. They will be slightly raised but will settle and flatten as they cool.
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If you are adding chocolate: when the biscuits have cooled, melt the chocolate either in a bain marie or in the microwave. (See comments below for guidance.) Either:
A) dip the biscuits into the chocolate – I like to cover half the biscuit only, OR
B) drizzle the chocolate over the biscuits either by drizzling it off a spoon or using a small piping bag.
Allow the chocolate to set. You can speed this up by popping them in the fridge.
NB You will use less chocolate if drizzling, rather than part covering the biscuits.
Recipe Notes
Equipment:
- Kitchen scales and measuring spoons
- Large saucepan
- Baking sheets, either greased or lined with baking parchment
- Cooling rack
- Chopping board and knife - if using stem ginger
- Microwave safe bowl of jug - if adding chocolate
Be very careful melting the chocolate. Chocolate can be very difficult to work with. You can overheat it very easily and the mixture will go grainy.
Microwave: I give the chocolate 60 seconds in the microwave, take it out and stir it well, then let it sit for a few minutes to see if it continues melting sufficiently to melt all the chocolate. If not, I then continue with the microwave but in 10 second bursts.
Bain Marie: if you do not have a microwave, put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Do not let the base of the bowl touch the water. Heat until the chocolate is very nearly melted then take it off the heat and take the bowl off the saucepan. Be very careful not to burn yourself as the bowl will be hot and steam will escape from the saucepan. Allow the mixture to sit for a few minutes for the residual heat to melt the remainder of the mixture. Again, be careful not to over-heat.
Cooking from frozen: allow 1 – 2 minutes extra cooking time.
Weighing the ingredients:
You can either weigh your ingredients and then add them to the saucepan or you can weigh your ingredients directly into your saucepan. Simply put it on the scales and zero the scales. Make sure you remember to zero them in between adding each new ingredient.