Ginger Nuts are a British favourite, a lovely gingery hard and crunchy biscuit. Ideal for dunking in a cup of tea. I decided to make some after I discovered that I didn’t have any on this blog. I know I have made them before, but that was probably before I started the blog.
Anyway they are very simple to make, simply mixing the dry ingredients, adding the wet ones and mixing into a dough. Then they are rolled and cut out and chilled before baking.
They are sure to turn out well, as did mine, except for one minor thing, filling the kitchen with a lovely aroma as they bake. Usually the top of the biscuit will crack. Mine didn’t, making me wonder if my baking soda needs to be replaced, either that or I overworked the dough. I will be trying them again, so will let you know.
As they cool they firm up until they are hard and crunchy.
The recipe that I used is not my own, but is taken from GoodToKnow, and is originally from Paul Hollywood. I have increased the amount of ginger to suit my taste. The original recipe had 2 teaspoons of ground ginger. (In the original edit of this I said tablespoons in error, silly me)
Ingredients:
- 340g/12oz plain flour
- 1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 3 level tsps ground ginger
- 100g/4oz butter
- 160g light brown sugar
- 4 tblsp golden syrup
- 1 large egg, beaten
- Pre-heat oven to 180°C/160C Fan/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
- Line the baking trays with grease proof paper.
- Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl. Rub in butter with finger tips until it looks like bread crumbs. Stir in the sugar then the syrup and the beaten egg. Bring it all together to form a smooth pastry dough.
- On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough to be about 8mm thick. Using a 2” straight-sided round cutter, cut out biscuits until all the biscuit dough is used up. Place on baking trays ensuring enough room is left for slight expansion of the biscuit. This should give you about 40 biscuits. But dont worry if you dont have the exact size cutter, a larger one will be fine too.
- Chill on the baking trays for 20 minutes in fridge.
- Cook for 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Remove from tray with palette knife and place on a cooling rack.