Similar to the Oatmeal Cookies I posted the other day, these Gingernuts are a recipe from my Grandma, and they use self-raising flour which is a massive win at the moment!
I don’t recall Grandma ever making these, but as soon as I gave one of these biscuits to my Mum, she said ‘Oh yes I remember these, this is Grandma’s recipe isn’t it?’. I found the recipe in a folder of loose handwritten and typed up recipes I collected from my grandparent’s place after Grandma died. There was a drawer in the kitchen that housed all her old cookbooks, notebooks and loose recipes and I carefully went through and filed them in a folder for safekeeping.
Some of the recipes in the folder are things I will probably never make (like the recipe for Curried Seafood Salad!), but having them and seeing her handwriting is always comforting. Then there are gems like this recipe that I think I will be making many times over, not only at the moment whilst we are in self isolation and need to be reasonable about our plain flour use, but after this madness is over too.
This recipe is really simple, and there is no need for a stand or hand held mixer. I also found that the dough was really easy to roll into balls, and the cookies baked into very consistent looking circles which was very satisfying.
My Grandma’s original recipe (as shown below) was mostly in cup measurements, but I have converted it into grams as I find it is easiest to bake that way. I also found I did not get the 48 biscuits as per the original recipe, I got more like 30 biscuits in total. I may have made them a little bigger than Grandma did, but I guess I will never know!
My Grandma’s Gingernut Biscuit Recipe
Gingernut Cookies
Ingredients:
115g unsalted butter
225g caster sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 egg, beaten
290g self raising flour
3 tsp ground ginger
pinch salt
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 to medium heat. Once melted remove from the heat and add the sugar, golden syrup and the egg and mix well.
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, ground ginger and salt. Add the butter mixture to the flour and mix until combined. If the mixture is warm from the melted butter, allow it to cool a little, otherwise continue on.
Roll teaspoonfuls of the dough into balls and place on the trays. The biscuits will spread as they bake so leave enough room in between each.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. I like the 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 30 biscuits/cookies.
