Chocolate ginger biscuits

                                 
                                                        Chocolate ginger biscuits

Ingredients

These are gorgeous, whether eaten in place of pudding or as your picnic lunch drifts into tea, and they're so addictive, you might want to double the recipe! If you want to decorate with gold leaf, you can buy it online from squires-shop.com.

• 115g self-raising flour
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon mixed spice
• 30g pale muscovado sugar
• 2 knobs (about 30g) of stem ginger in syrup
• 50g butter, plus extra for greasing
• 50g golden syrup
• 85g good quality dark chocolate, roughly broken

TO SERVE:

• 1 knob stem ginger in syrup, or a few flakes of edible gold leaf (optional)

Method

1. 1Heat the oven to 200ºC/fan oven 180ºC/mark 6.  Lightly oil 2 baking sheets and set aside.
2. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, spices and sugar with a pinch of salt, into a large bowl. Rinse 2 knobs of stem ginger under the tap, pat dry on kitchen paper and finely dice. Mix into the spiced flour.
3. Melt the butter and golden syrup together in a saucepan over a low heat. Do not let it boil. Then, using a wooden spoon, stir into the spiced flour. As soon as it is mixed, discard the spoon and, using your hands, mix and mould the dough into a sausage.
4. Cut the sausage into 16 pieces. Roll the first piece into a small ball and flatten into a disc. Place on the baking sheet and, if necessary flatten further until it is about 5cm in diameter and about 0.5cm thick. Repeat with the remaining dough, making sure the biscuits are well spaced as they spread slightly as they cook. 
5. Bake for about 15 minutes or until they're golden brown, slightly crackled, but still soft.  Remove from the oven and leave for a few minutes on the baking sheet to cool and harden slightly. Place on a cooling rack and leave until cold. 
6. Put the chocolate in a bowl that fits over a pan of just-boiled water (off the heat).  You'll need to replace the boiling water at least once to get the chocolate to melt.  Once it has melted, take a teaspoon and coat the top of each biscuit with melted chocolate.
7. Once the chocolate is beginning to set, decorate the centre of the biscuits, either with a rinsed and dried stem-ginger knob cut into matchsticks, or a few flecks of gold leaf

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