Fill your house with the scent of spicy gingerbread. Enhanced with a little limoncello icing, the biscuits are warming, chewy and delicious. Though you can use lemon juice instead. Eat just as they are, hang them up as festive decorations or pop into bags for gifts.
1dropblack pepper extractor ½ tsp ground black pepper
1dropnutmeg extractor ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
150gwholemeal flour
200gplain flour (all purpose flour)
1tspbicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1tspground allspice
2tspground ginger
Icing (optional)
6tbspicing sugar
1tbsplimoncelloor lemon juice
Instructions
Melt the butter in a large pan over a gently heat. Then add the sugar, treacle and chocolate. Stir until everything is well combined, then take off the heat and allow to cool a little.
110 g salted butter, 200 g dark brown sugar, 2 tbsp treacle, 25 g dark chocolate
Beat in the egg along with the spice drops, if using.
1 large egg, 2 drops cinnamon extract, 1 drop black pepper extract, 1 drop nutmeg extract
Sift in the flours, bicarbonate of soda and dry spices.
150 g wholemeal flour, 200 g plain flour (all purpose flour), 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), 1 tsp ground allspice, 2 tsp ground ginger
Mix together to form a soft dough. Cover the bowl and leave in a cool room or the fridge to firm up for an hour.
Set the oven to 180℃ (160℃ fan, 350℉, Gas 4).
Form the rested dough into a ball. Roll it out on a floured surface to about the thickness of a £1 coin.
Using a cookie cutter, stamp out shapes from it, re-rolling the leftovers again and again until the dough is all used up.
Place biscuits on lined baking trays and bake for 8-10 minutes depending on size. They should be lightly golden, but not dark. Small biscuits will need less time than larger ones.
If the biscuits are destined for hanging, use a chopstick to make thread holes in the top as soon as the biscuits are out of the oven. Using a palette knife, transfer onto a wire rack to cool.
Icing (optional)
Mix the icing sugar with just enough limoncello or lemon juice to make a thick, but pipeable icing.
6 tbsp icing sugar, 1 tbsp limoncello
Pipe this onto the biscuits in whatever way you like and leave them for an hour to dry.
Notes
For hanging, thread some festive string or ties through the holes and tie into loops.Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They’re approximate and will depend on serving size and exact ingredients used.