Thursday 20 September 2007

Double Ginger Oat Biscuits

The weather took a turn at the weekend. With a nip in the air, that first sign of autumn officially hit my daughter and I as we cycled along the coast. With her strapped on the back bicycle seat, it was blue noses all round by the time we got back home. Oh how I love the first chills of autumn.

When the first leaves have been kicked around in the back garden, nothing makes me happier than a bit of comfort baking. It is even better now that I have a very enthusiastic mini sous chef to help stir things up. On Sunday it was King Biscuit Time. Me being King Biscuit, and Time being the small amount of time it takes to knock up a good biscuit dough and shove them in the oven. Home-made biscuits are just fabulous.

We decided on some good crumbly oaty ginger biscuits. Ginger biscuits with a bit of a sting, rather than the tepid taste you often get from the commercial ginger biscuit. So lots of good ground ginger along with a few stem gingers finely chopped, to add a chewy spicy surprise into each bite. We also had a new set of biscuit cutters to try out, and it was sous chef Cerys' job to do the cutting. Ginger stars, men, flowers, circles and hearts a-plenty were soon adorning the kitchen tops, and after a 15 minute blast in the oven, the kitchen was lifting with beautiful home baked ginger smells.

The hardest bit about making biscuits with your little ones is stopping them eating the biscuits with the same enthusiasm they made them with. As you can see in the picture, sous chef Cerys risked the odd burnt finger in an effort to snaffle a few before they had the time to cool down. King Biscuit Time makes for good times all round. Roll on the next chilly Sunday.

Double Ginger Oat Biscuits
Makes approximately 20

125g self-raising flour
2 tsp ground ginger
4 stem gingers, finely diced
3 tbsp syrup from the stem gingers
50g oats
50g dark muscovado sugar
75g butter or margarine

1 - Pre-heat the oven to GM4/180C/Fan 160C.
2 - In a large bowl, sift in the flour and ground ginger. Mix in the oats, sugar and stem gingers, then add the butter and rub until it resembles large breadcrumbs. If it is a little dry, add more butter.
3 - Finally, add the syrup and combine thoroughly. You should be left with a semi-soft dough.
4 - Roll out onto a floured surface about 1cm thick, and cut out your shapes. Place onto a buttered baking sheet and place onto a high shelf. Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool on a wire rack and watch out for little hands reaching up before they are cool.

9 comments:

Abitofafoodie said...

I absolutely love proper ginger biscuits and like the addition of stem ginger and oats in this recipe. I shall definately have to give these a try.

KellytheCulinarian said...

I'm beginning to realize how much I'll miss a proper kitchen while I finish my degree in a "garden view" apartment in Washington, D.C. It's really just a nice way to say I'll be living in a basement.

Anh said...

Ginger biscuits, yum! I like the idea of a more intense ginger flavours. Great for autumn, right?

Cynthia said...

Look at the little cute hand reaching for a cookie :)

Pat said...

Ohhhhhhhh These sound really yummy!!! You have a great little baker there!!!Nothing like a fresh warm from the oven biscuit!!

Amanda at Little Foodies said...

How lovely! You painted a great picture of a perfect Autumnal day there.

Anonymous said...

I agree - there's nothing quite like home made biscuits. Yours look yummy - the less perfect in shape the better! :)

Celia Hart said...

Home made ginger biscuits on an Autumn day sounds like heaven! Ginger is such a warming spice - I love the preserved ginger in that yummy syrup.

Celia

winedeb said...

Ginger biscuits on a chilly autum day and the best sous chef around! What more could you want! Now you must tell me, what is stem ginger? The same as a piece of ginger root? Biscuits look lovely!

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