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Gingerbread
Christmas Biscuits
Ingredients 75ml black treacle Ornamental Icing In a large bowl, with electric mixer, beat 450g icing sugar, sifted, 5 tablespoons warm water and 3 tablespoons albumen powder. Beat until mixture is so stiff that when knife is drawn through mixture it will leave a clean path. If not using icing immediately, keep bowl covered with damp tea towel or cling film. Method In large bowl, combine black
treacle, brown sugar, butter, bicarbonate of soda, allspice, cinnamon, cloves,
ginger, egg and 100g flour. With electric mixer, beat ingredients for two
minutes, frequently scraping bowl with rubber spatula. With wooden spoon, stir
in enough of remaining flour to make stiff dough. Shape dough into ball; wrap.
Use dough immediately or refrigerate to use within two days. Preheat oven to 180 degrees
C/350 degrees F/gas 4. On lightly floured surface, with floured rolling pin,
roll out half the dough 3mm thick. With desired shape pastry
cutter (about 8.5cm) cut out as many biscuits as possible. With fish slice,
place biscuits, about 1cm apart, on ungreased large baking sheet. Bake biscuits for 12 minutes
or until edges are firm. With fish slice, immediately loosen biscuits from
baking sheet and transfer to wire racks to cool. Repeat with remaining dough and
trimmings. If not decorating biscuits
immediately, wrap in freezer paper or foil, seal, label and freeze. Before
decorating, unwrap frozen biscuits and thaw for 1 hour. Prepare Ornamental Icing. Spoon icing into piping bag with small writing tube, or use paper piping bag with cut tip to make 3mm hole; pipe decorative outlines and designs on each biscuit. Set aside to allow icing to dry completely, about 1 hour. Makes about 24 cookies. Can be made up to a week before and kept in airtight container. |
