Ingredients
100g unsalted butter, softened
125g dark brown sugar
2 egg yolks
60g honey
250g plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 tsps ground ginger
½ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
LEMON ICING
500g icing sugar
2 eggwhites
Juice of 1 lemon
Method
-
- Cream the butter with the sugar using a wooden spoon or an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, until pale and fluffy. Add the egg yolks and honey. Beat until smooth.
- Sieve the dry ingredients together and add them, along with a pinch of salt, to the butter mixture while the paddle is moving until a soft paste forms. The dough should be sticky. Wrap in cling film and allow to rest in the fridge overnight.
- The next day, preheat oven to 150°C and remove the dough from the fridge. Lightly dust your kitchen bench with flour and using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to 5mm thick using a little flour on the top of the dough to stop the rolling pin from sticking. Then cut out the desired shapes using cookie cutters.
- To make the holes to hang your ornaments, just use a skewer to pierce a hole in the top of each shape (make it about 7mm in diameter) – the hole will close up slightly when the cookies are baked.
- Place the cookies onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for approximately 20 minutes. Cool on the baking tray before icing.
- To make the icing, sieve the icing sugar into a bowl, add eggwhites and the lemon juice and whisk together to make a smooth icing. You can add a few drops of colour to the icing at this stage or just leave it white. Spread the icing over the cookies and leave to set, after which time you can tread them with ribbon and hang them on your tree.
- Cream the butter with the sugar using a wooden spoon or an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, until pale and fluffy. Add the egg yolks and honey. Beat until smooth.
