Ginger cookies are a great winter biscuit. They’re warming and comforting, and great dipped in tea when you’re indoors sheltering from the cold. This recipe makes around 25 crunchy biscuits very similar to the ginger nuts you can buy in the shops, and they keep very well. If you keep them for a while they’ll start to go soft when - arguably - they could be even better.

Ingredients
170g (6oz) self-raising flour
Three quarters of a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
70g (2.5oz) of sugar
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
70g (2.5oz) of margarine
115g (4oz) of Golden Syrup
A pinch of salt

Method
Golden Syrup taken straight from the bottle or tin is far too thick and sticky for baking biscuits, and needs thinning through gentle warming. Pour 115g into a small glass and put this into a bowl of hot water to warm.

While the syrup is warming, put the flour, salt and margarine into a large bowl and rub them together until they form a fine breadcrumb-like texture. This happens quite suddenly after a few minutes, so don’t be put off that nothing seems to happen to start with. Once you have the crumb-like texture, mix in the sugar, ginger and bicarbonate of soda.

Now add the warmed syrup and stir it all together. It should be a gentle caramel colour and be holding itself together quite well.

Lightly grease a baking tray with some butter or margarine, and make small balls of your biscuit mixture. When cooked these spread a long way, so make the balls about two-thirds the size of a golf ball, flatten them slightly and then lay them on the tray with a lot of space between each one. At this size they will spread to about 8cm (3in) diameter.

Bake them in a moderate oven (160 degrees C / 320 degrees F) until golden brown. They will be ready in around 10 minutes.

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