Ginger Creams Recipe

A while back, Nikki made these Ginger Creams and brought them in for everyone as a treat, resulting in days of ‘are there any more of those cookies?’ and weeks of ‘when are you making those cookies again?’. Just spicy enough, soft with a slightly crunchy bite, thanks to the demerara sugar, and filled with smooth cream cheese icing, these sandwich cookies will make you forget all about the ones at the supermarket.

Ginger Creams Recipe

Makes 15–18 Ginger cookies

Ingredients

• 140g unsalted butter, softened
• 150g soft light brown sugar
• 70g golden syrup
• 1 egg
• 225g plain flour
• 1 1⁄2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1⁄4 tsp ground cloves
• 150g demerara sugar

Cream Cheese Icing

• 70g unsalted butter, softened
• a pinch of sea salt
• 115g cream cheese, at room temperature
• 395g icing sugar, sifted

Method

For the Ginger Cookies

1. In a large bowl, bring together the butter, light brown sugar and golden syrup with a spatula or an electric hand mixer until well combined. Add the egg and mix through until smooth, then add all of the dry ingredients, except for the demerara sugar, and fold through until you have a soft, squishy dough. Cover and place in the fridge for around 1 hour to firm up.
2. Preheat your oven to 190°C (170°C fan) and line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.
3. Weigh out 20g nuggets of the dough and roll between your hands to make neat balls.
4. Roll each one in the demerara sugar to completely coat them. Pop them onto the baking sheet 10cm/4in apart, to allow for spreading.
5. Bake for 10 minutes, then leave to cool down completely.

For the cream cheese icing

1. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a medium mixing bowl, beat together the butter and salt until pale and whippy.
2. Add the cream cheese and beat together on a high speed for 1–2 minutes.
3. Add the icing sugar in two stages, beating for a couple of minutes after each addition until you have a light, smooth, luxurious icing.
4. Pop this into a piping bag fitted with a large round nozzle.

To Finish

1. Pair up the cookies and turn half of them over, ready to fill.
2. Pipe 5–6 small blobs of icing (about the size of a 50p piece) around the middle of the cookies, 1cm/½in from the edge. Place the other cookies on top and gently press down to allow the icing blobs to spread a bit and reach the edges of the sandwich. Place in the fridge until you’re ready to eat.

Handy Tip:  Putting them in the fridge for a while will help the icing firm up. Actually, we all prefer them the day after they’ve been in the fridge overnight!