You can never have enough proper biscuit recipes. Once you’ve mastered the basics – shortbread, gingerbread, peanut butter, etc – it’s time to seek out something a bit different.
We made these thin and crispy biscuits on clearing out the kitchen cupboards and discovering the last dregs of a can of forgotten treacle.
“Time to use it up”, said Lara.
Beat 140g of soft butter together with 40g of soft light brown sugar and 115g of caster sugar until the mixture is light, the colour of milky coffee. Unrefined golden caster sugar is best here – it’s got a better colour and just tastes…good.
Add an egg yolk and 30ml of treacle to the mixture. You could measure out 30ml of treacle, but you’ll end up with treacle stuck to everything. To save you the trouble, we did the measuring and noticed that 30ml is about one big tablespoon. Add a bit more if you like.
Next, sift over 150g of plain flour, half a teaspoon each of bicarbonate of soda, ground cloves and ground allspice, along with one and a half teaspoons of ground ginger, and a big pinch of salt. Mix the flour and spices in well until you’re left with a soft and pliable dough.
Shape the dough into a log about 15cm long and 4 or 5 cm in diameter, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for half an hour to allow the dough to firm up.
When the dough is chilled, unwrap it and slice off 5mm discs, dipping each one in a bowl of demerara sugar to coat one side.
Place each slice on a greased baking sheet and bake at 180c for eight to ten minutes, until they’re a dark gold colour.
When they’re done, don’t try to remove the biscuits from the tray straight away – they’ll fall apart. Leave them to cool for a while before transferring to a wire rack, where they’ll crisp up nicely.
Very good with coffee.
This recipe is from Bill Granger’s Feed Me Now!
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Mmm…treacle. Looks perfect!
Sounds like a delicious treat!
Love these kinds of spicy cookies. They look great:)
YUM! The look and sound wonderful!
Yumm! Sounds soo good!
Mmm, gingery goodness. And biscuits. That how I like to hear them called, none of this cookie business.
'Biscuit' is a much nicer word than 'cookie', isn't it?
I found these to be delicious and super moreish! I must say I had to add extra flour to the mix and refrigerate the dough for a while before I got a log shape which could be sliced. The dough also sat in my fridge in it's cling film for almost a week before I got round to baking them and still super delicious!