Chocolate Gingerbread Biscuits
Chocolate gingerbread biscuits - a chocolatey twist on classic gingerbread biscuits; they make great cut-outs for Christmas!
Servings 10 people
Ingredients
Chocolate Gingerbread Biscuits:
- 100 g (3.5oz) vegan block butter cubed
- 80 g (⅓ + ⅛ cup) light brown soft sugar
- 50 g (2 Tbsp) golden syrup
- 50 g (2 Tbsp) treacle or molasses
- 1 tablespoon water
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 210 g (1 + ¾ cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 30 g (¼ cup) cocoa powder
Royal Icing:
- 235 g (2 + ⅓ cups) icing (powdered) sugar sifted
- 2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 2 Tablespoons aquafaba
Instructions
Chocolate Gingerbread Biscuits:
- Place the butter, sugar, golden syrup, treacle and water in a pan and heat gently while stirring until it is melted and smooth.
- Remove the pan from the heat and beat in the spices and bicarbonate of soda, followed by the flour and cocoa powder. Mix until it forms a smooth dough then cover the pan and place in the fridge for about an hour, until the dough is firm.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 and line two baking trays with baking parchment. Bring the dough together into a ball and roll out on a lightly floured surface to about 3mm (⅛) inch thick.
- Cut out shapes using cookie cutters and place them slightly spaced apart on the baking trays. Re-roll the scraps to cut out more shapes.
- Place the trays in the freezer for 15 minutes until firm then bake for about 8-10 minutes until the biscuits feel firm around the edges (they will harden more as they cool). The smaller ones will cook quicker than big ones so try to group similar sized ones together on the trays.
- Leave to cool on the trays for 5 minutes then transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Royal Icing:
- Once the biscuits are cool, make the royal icing. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the lemon juice. Stir in the aquafaba a little at a time until the icing is smooth and thick but pipe-able; if you drizzle some back into the bowl the pattern should disappear after about 8 seconds. If it is too thick then add a little more aquafaba or lemon juice, and if it is too runny then add a little more sifted icing sugar.
- Spoon the icing into a piping bag fitted with a 1mm plain round nozzle. Pipe snowflake designs onto the biscuits (Pinterest is a great place to get inspiration for patterns!) and set them aside for half an hour to dry. Once dry store in an airtight container.
Notes
For the best results make sure that you follow the recipe closely. As always, I highly recommend using the gram measurements (with a digital scale), rather than the cup conversions. Cup measurements are simply not accurate enough for baking and I cannot guarantee the best results if you use them.