Carrying on my current obsession with warming spiced baked goods, tis the season and all! 

I’ve rustled up these delicious stem ginger shortbread biscuits (Cookies if you’re over the pond). Beautifully spiced, crumbly and buttery these are certainly a hit! With the addition of dark chocolate, they are a real treat, perfect for baked gifts this Holiday season. So why don’t you whip up a double batch for you and someone you care about and spread some love! 

This is a very beginner friendly recipe, and if you cannot get hold of the stem ginger they are still just as lovely! Or get experimental and play with other spices, cinnamon, nutmeg, chili? Go wild! 

Ingredients  

 For the dough - 

200g unsalted butter, softened

100g caster sugar

250g plain flour

50g rice flour

½ tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp Salt

50g chopped stem ginger, syrup removed.  

To decorate – (Optional)

100g good quality Dark Chocolate

 Method 

1 -  

Put the soft butter into a mixing bowl and beat with a stand or electric mixer until creamy. Gradually beat in the sugar and continue to beat thoroughly until the mixture looks pale and fluffy.

 2 -

Sift the flour, rice flour, ground ginger and salt into the bowl. Add the chopped ginger and work all the ingredients together with your until thoroughly combined. Form the dough into disk and wrap in clingfilm. Chill for 20 to 30 minutes or until firm.

3 -  

Preheat the oven to 150°C. Unwrap the disk and begin to roll out to your desired thickness, if you want to achieve the 20 rounds, aim for approx. 1cm thick, using a floured cutter I used a round cookie cutter stamp out your shortbread and arrange on baking sheets lined with either grease proof paper of a silicone sheet.

4 - 

Bake for about 20 minutes or until firm but not browned, be sure to check on them to ensure they do not burn. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with caster sugar, then leave on the baking sheets to cool and firm up for a couple of minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely. 

To decorate

Gently melt two thirds of your chopped chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water (double boiler, ensuring the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl of chocolate.  When the chocolate is almost fully melted remove from the pan and stir until no un-melted chocolate is visible. At this point add in your remaining chopped chocolate and stir until fully melted. You can now dip your cooled shortbread in any way you would like, I like the half dip, but you could drizzle or fully coat them. When dipped place on a silicone sheet or grease proof paper to set. 

If you do not want to use chocolate, you can also when they come out of the oven liberally sprinkle with extra castor sugar. 

 Store in an airtight container in a cool place and eat within a week.