Gingerbread And White Chocolate Chip Cookies

These little biscuits make a nice change from ordinary cookies. The sweetness of the white chocolate works well with the heat of the gingerbread, and they have a nice "chewy" consistency rather than the hard crunch of a gingernut. They are perfect for giving as gifts, or for enjoying with the hot drink of your choice. This recipe will make about 35 biscuits, but of course this depends on the size. I chose to keep them small but they will work well as giant cookies too.

Ingredients:

400g Plain Flour
3/4 Tsp Bicarbonate Of Soda
2 Tsp Ground Ginger
2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp Ground Cloves
1/4 Tsp Ground Nutmeg
180g Salted Butter (room temperature)
125g Dark Muscovodo Sugar
40g Black Treacle
80g Golden Syrup
100g White Chocolate Chips
1 Egg

Method:

In a bowl, sift together the flour, spices (ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg) and bicarbonate of soda. 

In a separate, larger bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add to this the egg, treacle and syrup and beat until thoroughly combined. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients - it's best to do it two or three tablespoons at a time to prevent the flour from going everywhere, especially if you are using a handheld electric whisk like me. Once you have a smooth mixture, gently fold in the chocolate chips. 

You should now have a slightly sticky, but not runny, dough. Wrap this in clingfilm and leave it in the fridge to chill for at least a couple of hours, but ideally overnight.

Once you are ready to make your cookies, preheat your over to 170 degrees (or 150 for a fan oven). Line a baking tray with a sheet of greaseproof paper, and take the gingerbread dough out of the fridge. I found it best to warm it up by working it in my hands for a minute or two before rolling it out. You want to roll it to a thickness of about 5mm. This will give the biscuits a nice, soft texture. Use the cookie cutter of your choice to cut your biscuits and place them onto the baking tray. Make sure you leave a decent gap between them as they will expand, and you could potentially end up with a single, giant cookie! 

Bake the biscuits for 12-15 minutes until they have risen and are a nice golden colour. Remove from the oven and allow to sit for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.