I love finding new biscuit (and for you Americans, that'd be cookies, not breakfast biscuits) recipes. We've all got out favourites: chocolate chip, Anzacs, oatmeal & raisin. I have a great recipe by Bill Granger which is Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip. Just by substituting some of the butter in the recipe with peanut butter, it lends a lovely sweet nutty flavour to the biscuit. I also love the traditional Anzac biscuit, which is something that has so many different recipes, but all come from the same basic ingredients. Some have equal amounts of coconut, flour, sugar & oats, others have different amounts of each.
Quite often, I go searching for recipes to replace store-bought biscuits: Tim-Tams (that great Australian chocolate biscuit), Mint Slices, Granitas, Gingernuts, Arrowroot. (All Arnott biscuits available in Australia.) Today, I bring you Gingernuts!
This is SUCH an easy recipe, I couldn't get over it the first time I tried it. I seem to say that about all of the recipes that I've posted about, but again it's true! And again, it's an Egg-Free recipe!
Don't they look awesome? Crisp, light, wonderfully gingery, and great to have with a cup of tea or coffee, they're great every-day biscuits.
Gingernuts
2/3 cup (100gm) Self Raising Flour
1/2 tsp BiCarb Soda
1 tsp Ginger
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 AllSpice (I substitute Cinnamon)
1/3 cup Brown Sugar
50gm Butter
2-3 tblsp Golden Syrup (or Treacle - different taste)
Get your ingredients out. (in the above photo, you'll notice I've got Baking Powder there. That's because I only have plain flour, and need the baking powder in there to make it Self-Raising Flour. The radio is 1 cup flour: 2 tsp baking powder!)
Measure out all your dry ingredients into a bowl, and mix them all up together thoroughly.
Cut up your partially softened butter (butter out of the fridge will be fine - it will just take you longer to rub in) and plop it down into the bowl. Using the tips of your fingers, rub the butter into the dry mixture until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Don't be afraid! Get in there, mix it all up, then seek out those butter pieces and literally rub the dry ingredients into that butter! (same method as old fashioned Scones!)
Notice the breadcrumb texture of the mixture in the above photo!
Now comes the combining part. The reason that the Golden Syrup is 2-3 tablespoons, and not a specified amount, is because you want to add 2 tablespoons to the mixture, mix it through, and add more if the mixture isn't coming together enough! Generally, it's a bit more than 2 tablespoons, and not quite three. Experiment. Put in two, then (I use a fork) mix the syrup up in the dry mixture, pressing it down and through, until it's coming together. Get your hands in there towards the end if you're having trouble making the mixture cohesive. If it's still just not working, add a bit more syrup. It should come together (after a bit of hand-help) like it is in the next photo.
At this point, I'm going to talk about substituting Treacle!
At Christmas time, which is when I made the second batch of this biscuits, I didn't have Golden Syrup in the house. I had just used the last of it up, and we had a tight financial Christmas, so I couldn't see the point of buying another jar of syrup, when I'd already just bought a jar of Treacle! It had been purchased to make a soft load of Gingerbread. (It's all about ginger things in our house at Christmas time!) I'd just scraped enough Golden Syrup out of the jar to make the previous batch of biscuits, but they'd been eaten in about a day, and I wanted to make more. So I substituted the treacle. It has a very similar consistency, but a smokier taste than Golden Syrup. It is slightly more viscous , and is much darker in colour than the syrup. (My partner just got it out of the cupboard, since I wanted his opinion on the difference, and he's having flashbacks to childhood and eating it out of the jar! I can hear "Mmmm nom nom nom" coming from the living room!!)
If you've got treacle and not golden syrup, just use the same amount. The biscuits might spread a little more, but I find how much they do spread is in direct proportion to the amount of liquid syrup is added. Obviously... :)
So after combining the mixture, this is the result.
Divide the mixture into 16. I find it works well if you just use a knife. Sometimes you'll get a few cookies a bit bigger than others. I stretched the batch to make a few more... Roll each piece of mixture, and place on the cooking sheet, pressing down with your fingers or a floured fork.
18 there. Pop them in a 180C oven for 15 minutes, until darker golden in colour, and light brown on the bottom.
Beautiful, crisp, (but they can be slightly soft & chewy at first, out of the oven), golden Gingernut Biscuits :)
Gingernut Biscuits
from Everyday Cooking (Authors Website)
2/3 cup (100gm) Self Raising Flour
1/2 tsp BiCarb Soda
1 tsp Ginger
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 AllSpice (I substitute Cinnamon)
1/3 cup Brown Sugar
50gm Butter
2-3 tblsp Golden Syrup (or Treacle - different taste)
Combine dry ingredients. Rub in butter. Stir in syrup, and press to a dough-like consistancy. Divide into 16 pieces, roll each piece, and press each ball down with a floured fork (or fingers) on the baking sheet.
Bake at 180C for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.
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