Perfect for the holiday season. These delicious ginger biscuits are great on their own with a cupa, or dipped in white chocolate, and are a great recipe to make with children or wrap up as a present. For a less sweet biscuit, I have also tried it with half the sugar, they don’t stay as crisp as long, but still just as delicious!

What To Do:

• 340g/12oz plain flour
• 100g white chocolate
• 60g icing sugar
• water
• red & green food colouring
• 3 level tsps ground ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 100g/4oz butter
• 130g light brown sugar
• 4 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 large egg, beaten

What You’ll Need:

• In a mixing bowl whisk together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg and set aside.
• Either in a mixer or by hand, cream together the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Mix in the egg and combine. With mixer set on low speed, slowly add in dry ingredients and mix until combined, and you have a dough. Cover bowl with cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour.
• Preheat oven to 180C / 350F / Gas 4 during the last 10 minutes of chilling.
• For a smooth top to the biscuits, roll out the dough to around ½ inch thick and cut circles out with a cookie cutter, for a more rustic ‘ginger nut’ top, scoop out a dessert spoon of mixture from the bowl and shape into a ball, transfer to the baking sheet and, spacing around 2 inches apart, flatten tops slightly.
• Bake for around 8 – 10 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
• In a microwave safe bowl, melt the white chocolate in the microwave, in 10 second intervals until melted. Dip half of each cookie in melted white chocolate mixture then run bottom of cookie slightly along edge of bowl to remove excess, then return to Silpat or parchment paper to set at room temperature.
• If doing the holly decoration, make a thick icing, using a little bit of hot water to mix into the icing sugar. Add a little from a teaspoon each time to make sure mixture isn’t too runny. Split the icing into two bowls and add a couple of drops of the red and green food colouring melt candy melts according to directions on package (I worked in small batches because it sets quickly, maybe 9 chips at a time, plus you won’t need much). Pour into a piping bags fitted with a #4 tip and pipe decorations. Allow to set a room temperature.

Tip: We always make double the dough and freeze half for another time, or just make double quantity as they disappear pretty quickly.

Recipe from Alice Fotheringham, infant nutrition specialist at Piccolo