soft gingerbread tiles with lemon butter glaze
When I returned to Sydney I bought a few items at the Boxing Day sales including these snowflake pie crust cutters. I doubt I'll ever use them to decorate pies but I thought they'd make great cookie cutters.
I couldn't wait to use them and I knew exactly what to make, the soft gingerbread tiles with lemon butter glaze from Sweet by Ottolenghi and Helen Goh.
I made a few adaptations to the original recipe. I don't like the taste of molasses and didn't have any treacle in the house, so I used golden syrup instead. To save time I threw everything into the food processor and found I didn't need to use the full quantity of golden syrup. When I made the glaze I went down the non-alcoholic route and used lemon juice rather than rum.
The original recipe said it would make 12-14 biscuits depending on the size of the cookie stamp but I made about 30 cookies. I was a bit generous with the glaze so I ran out, so if you use small cutters like I did, you might need to make a little more glaze.
Here's the recipe for you. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams; I use unsalted butter and my oven is a conventional gas oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.
Soft Gingerbread
235g plain flour
1 tbs dutch process cocoa powder
½ tsp bicarb soda
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cinnamon
⅛ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp salt
85g unsalted butter at room temperature
90g brown sugar
75-100g golden syrup
1 large egg yolk
Rum or Lemon Butter Glaze
80g icing sugar
⅛ tsp cinnamon
15g unsalted butter, melted and warm
15 mls dark rum (or lemon juice)
1 teaspoon warm water
Method
Place the dry ingredients into a food processor and whiz for a few seconds to combine. Add the butter and sugar and whiz until soft breadcrumbs form. Add the egg yolk and the golden syrup and whiz until the mix comes together. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently.If the dough is soft you may need to chill the dough before rolling out.
Preheat oven 190ºC. Line two baking trays with baking parchment and set aside. Roll out the dough so it’s 6mm thick Dip the cookie stamps in a small bowl of flour, shake off any excess and then press them firmly into the dough, one at a time, to create a deep imprint. Using a round biscuit cutter that is slightly larger than the pattern, cut out the pieces of imprinted gingerbread.
Transfer the cookies to the lined baking trays about 1-inch apart. Re-roll the dough and continue to stamp and cut until all the dough is used up. Bake for 9-10 mins, rotating the trays halfway through, until firm to the touch. Don’t be tempted to cook any longer as the gingerbread will continue to firm as they cool.
While the biscuits are in the oven, prepare the glaze as it needs to be brushed on while they are still warm. Sift the icing sugar and cinnamon into a bowl. Add the melted butter, rum (or lemon juice) and water and mix with a spoon until smooth. The glaze will thicken slightly if it sits around, so stir through a little more warm water if you need to – it should be the consistency of runny honey.
Remove the biscuits from the oven, leave to rest for 5 mins, then brush or dab the glaze all over with a pastry brush. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Biscuits will keep for up to five days in an airtight container.
Like all Ottolenghi recipes, this one worked like a dream and the gingerbread was packed with flavour.
See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.
Bye for now,
Jillian
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