These delicious ginger biscuits, filled with all the spices and smells of Christmas, are perfect to bake together this weekend

Prep: 15 minutes

Cooking: 25 minutes

Makes: 25 biscuits

Suitable for freezing
Ingredients

250g plain flour

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

½ tsp ground allspice

4 tsp ground ginger

125g butter, softened and diced

120g soft brown sugar

80g treacle

75g crystallised ginger, finely chopped
Method

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices together into a large mixing bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer, making sure they are well combined.
Add the butter and, if making by hand, rub in before stirring in the other ingredients to make a dough. If using a mixer, add the butter, sugar, treacle and mix. Add the crystallised ginger at the end and mix until well combined into a dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for a minimum of 30 minutes, or 2 hours if you have time. Once chilled, take the dough out of the fridge and leave at room temperature for 5-10 minutes to soften slightly and make easier to roll.
Heat the oven to 160C (140C for fan ovens). Roll out the chilled dough onto a lightly floured surface to about 1cm thick, and cut out the biscuits into any shape you like using a cookie cutter or knife. If making decorations, create a small hole in the biscuit with a skewer. Arrange, spaced out, on two lined and greased baking trays, then bake for 25 minutes.
Allow to cool on the baking ...