Yorkshire Gingernut Biscuits from Mary Berry

I love gingernut biscuits; the spicy heat from the ginger is a very welcome addition to an otherwise simple biscuit to accompany my morning cup of tea. Perhaps originating from Yorkshire, given the title, they do seem very English and so Mary Berry’s recipe seemed a good place to start.

Ingredients:
• 100g butter
• 1 generous tablespoon of golden syrup (I used 25grams)
• 350g self-raising flour
• 100g demerara sugar
• 100g light muscovado sugar
• (I used 200g of ordinary brown sugar)
• 1 level teaspoon of bi-carb soda
• 1 heaped tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 large egg, beaten
Preheat the oven to 160 and line 2 baking trays.
Measure the butter and golden syrup into a small saucepan (using scales for the golden syrup if you wish to skip the messy spoon-measure). Melt together over low heat and stir.
Meanwhile, sift the flour, bi-carb and ginger into a bowl and then add in the sugars and stir.

Now pour the butter mixture and the egg into the flour mix and stir well until it comes together.

I needed to add about 4 tablespoons of milk to get the dough to come together, but this may have been due to the different sugar I used. If you need to do the same, be assured it will not adversely affect the biscuits.
Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls and place on the trays, allowing room for a little spreading.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden, lift off the tray and leave to cool on a wire rack.
The texture and density of these biscuits is nice; crunchy on the outside with a little chew in the middle (possibly thanks to the addition of milk). However I really feel the flavour is not strong enough for my preference. The gingernuts I am trying to emulate (Arnott’s, admittedly) have a strong, almost spicy ginger flavour. I may have to try another recipe, or perhaps another ginger spice to get that same heat.