Crispy, tasty, spiced biscuits in a pretty winter pine cone shape….

Ingredients:

65g butter

3 tbsp golden syrup

50g light brown sugar

140g plain flour

1 tbsp ground ginger

Method:

1. In a pan, melt the butter, golden syrup and brown sugar on a low heat while stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves.

2. Sieve the flour and ginger into a mixing bowl.
Add the melted butter, golden syrup and sugar mixture to the bowl of flour, and mix with a wooden spoon until it’s smooth and forms a dough.

3. Wrap the mixture in baking paper and leave in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Remove the dough from the freezer and take it out of the baking paper.

Preheat your oven to 175°C

4. Place the dough between two sheets of baking paper and roll it through the paper until it is about 1cm thick. Make sure the thickness is consistent all the way through.

5. On a piece of baking paper, draw a pine cone shape and cut it out to use as a template.

6. Using a sharp knife, cut out as many pine cones as you can, following your template. Re-roll the remaining dough to cut out more.

When moving your pine cones, it helps to use a flour dusted pallet knife or spatula.

7. Using the blunt edge of a knife press diagonal lines into the pine cone shapes, then press diagonal lines in the opposite direction (See image above). Press through the dough as far down as you can without actually cutting through it. If you do, you can push it back together and it will bond during baking.

8. Place your pine cones evenly on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

9. Bake for 8-10 minutes, depending on your oven and the thickness of your biscuits. Keep checking after 8 minutes. Bake until just browning at the edges.

10. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the tray for 5 minutes as they will be very soft at first. Then transfer them to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container.