These biscuits (or cookies) are inspired by the Crunchy Cinnamon Cookies I made over a year ago, but with a festive twist.
I love gingerbread inspired biscuits and cakes, so these are a great addition to my Christmas biscuit repertoire. They are also a relatively quick biscuit to make, they don’t require too much time in the fridge, just enough so the dough firms up a bit.
You can also freeze the dough if you’d like to make the recipe in stages - freeze either rolled into a log and roll the log in the spiced sugar mixture, or roll into balls as the recipe suggests but rather than baking you can freeze them at that stage (already rolled in the spiced sugar mix). Frozen biscuits will need about 2 minutes longer to cook, but check them as you go as that’s the best way to determine if they are ready.
If you have leftover egg yolks after other Christmas baking, you can substitute the one egg in this recipe for two egg yolks to help use them up.
I hope you have a very Merry Christmas, filled with lots of good food.
Crunchy Spiced Christmas Cookies
Ingredients:
120g unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
100g dark brown sugar
2 tbsp treacle
1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or extract)
1 egg
290g self raising flour
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
1.5 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp Demerara or raw sugar
Method:
Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius and line three large baking trays with baking paper.
In a small saucepan melt the butter over low-medium heat. Once the butter has melted remove from the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. Then whisk in the caster sugar, brown sugar, treacle, vanilla and the egg.
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp mixed spice, and all of the ground ginger, cardamom, clove and nutmeg.
Add the butter mixture to the flour and mix with a wooden spoon until combined.
Cover and chill in fridge for at least 20 mins (however you could do overnight).
In a small bowl mix together the remaining 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp mixed spice and the Demerara sugar.
Roll heaped teaspoonfuls of the dough into balls and roll into your spiced sugar mix. Place on the prepared trays - the biscuits will spread as they bake so leave enough room in between.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. The biscuits will spread and flatten out as they good, and have a slightly crinkled look on the tops. Rotate the trays in the oven about halfway through to ensure the biscuits cook evenly.
Allow to cool on their trays, then store in an airtight container.
Makes about 34-36 biscuits.
