Spooky Gingerbread Biscuits

Happy Halloween! Okay okay, so I may be a day late, but hey, I've got my excuses! I didn't even have time to carve a pumpkin and my fancy dress was below par. My Halloween game was just not on point this year. I do apologise. Will some spooky gingerbread biscuits make it up to you? Maybe? Well here you go then...

I love baking gingerbread biscuits. They're super quick and easy to make and just perfect for this time of year! Full of ginger, cinnamon and an added pinch of nutmeg, they're a delicious companion to a cuppa! I usually make gingerbread biscuits around Christmas time, but after seeing these biscuits on Pinterest I was in the mood to make some Halloweeny treats!

For my gingerbread I always use the same recipe from my trusty Gingerbread book by Joanna Farrow.  It's full of handy techniques and amazing gingerbread structures, and always makes me want to build a gingerbread house. But for now, I just went for the basic golden gingerbread.

Ingredients:

175g plain flour

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Optional pinch of nutmeg

65g unsalted butter, cut into pieces

75g castor sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

1 egg yolk, beaten (save the egg white)

Recipe:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180'C.

1. Sift together the flour, bicarb, salt and spices into a large bowl.

2. Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. 

3. Add the sugar, syrup and egg yolk and mix to a firm dough.

4. Knead lightly, wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes.

5. Thinly roll out your dough and use cutters to create whatever crazy shape you want!

6. Place the biscuits on a lined baking tray and bake for about 12 minutes until they are just beginning to colour around the edges. 

Ingredients to decorate:

(I should mention that, in my over-confidence, I misread the book and followed the wrong recipe, making an icing glaze rather than royal icing, which actually worked in my favour as I was running out of icing sugar. The following is the recipe for the recommended royal icing)

 1 egg white (saved from the biscuits)

200g-225g icing sugar

(Or if you fancy making an icing glaze instead, here's the recipe for you)

1 tbsp egg white, lighttly beaten

1 tbsp lemon juice

75g-115g icing sugar

For the spiderweb biscuits, I covered the whole biscuit in icing, then, once it had set, drew on a spiderweb pattern using a white icing pen. As my glace icing was fairly translucent, the white icing pen gave it a ghostly look. However, if you are using royal icing I'd recommend using a different colour to ensure the web shows up.

For the blood-splattered biscuits I covered the whole biscuit again in icing. Then, once it has set, I flicked on red food colouring using a paintbrush.

For the vampires, I cut out the biscuits using a standard gingerbread man cutter, and iced on the features using a white icing pen, making sure the two teeth were pointed. Once the icing had set, I dabbed red food colouring onto the ends of the teeth using a cocktail stick.

For the bats, I cut out the biscuits using a bat-shaped cutter. I then iced on the features using a white icing pen, and dabbed red food colouring on the ends of the teeth once it had set.

How was your Halloween? Did you make any Halloween treats?

Love, Beth xxx