Ginger biscuits are the backbone biscuit of my life – they saw me through the misery of morning sickness with all my babies, gingerbread men were the first biscuits I baked with each of them and they are there when we are ploughing through the waves and one of our entourage feels a little queasy. This is my current favourite ginger biscuits recipe and my lot are convinced it is the best ginger biscuits recipe I’ve come up with so far! This recipe is based on one by Mary Ford in her excellent step-by-step Biscuit Recipes
When I bought this beautiful Wrendale Cracker Tin recently I needed to Christen it with something worthy, it needed to be the ultimate biscuit and it must go really well with my cup of tea for Elevenses. I contemplated gingerbread men but they are all awkward limbs, not the right shape at all. I pondered a fork biscuit or an almond macaroon, perhaps a slice of flapjack or a chewy chocolate cookie but, no, none of these would quite hit the spot. I wanted something elegant and understated, something spicy with just the right amount of crunch to chew ratio; something which could be dunked without disaster. It had to be ginger biscuits and, if it was to be ginger biscuits it had to be the best ginger biscuits – Cornish Fairings!
A ‘fairing’ was originally a treat sold at the seasonal fairs which popped up all over this green and pleasant land and Cornish Fairings have been produced in Cornwall for the last hundred years. They are a step up from your regular everyday ginger biscuit and they are exactly what I needed for my lovely tin.
A simple recipe for the best ginger biscuits these Cornish Fairings are delicately spiced, chewy but robust enough to dunk in your morning cuppa.
- 225 g/1 cup Plain/All Purpose Flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tsp ground mixed spice
- 1½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 3 tsp ground ginger
- pinch of salt
- 120 g/1/2 cup vegan butter
- 120 g/1/2 cup caster sugar
- 5 tbsps golden syrup
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Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4
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Grease two baking trays
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Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, spices and salt into a large bowl
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Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
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Stir in the sugar
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Add the golden syrup and mix together well
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Bring it all together with your hands to make a smooth dough
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Divide your dough into half
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Take one half and break off 12 small walnut sized pieces, roll into balls and place on the greased backing trays with space between each ball as they will spread to form our lovely biscuits!
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Bake for 8-10 minutes until they have spread, turned golden brown and taken on their characteristic crackled top look (if you are using vegan margarine give the trays a bang on your work surface when they come out of the oven - fab tip from Ms Cupcake's marvellous The Naughtiest Vegan Cakes in Town!)
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Leave to cool for 5 minutes on the baking trays before moving carefully with a spatula to wire racks to cool completely – if you can wait that long, we scoff some while they are still warm!
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Repeat with the other half of your dough (or freeze to use at a later date)
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These biscuits will keep well in a tin for 3 to 4 days – it doesn’t have to be a Wrendale but it helps!
I love how that little owl on the right is looking at me as if to say ‘Where’s mine?’! I wonder if little owls would like ginger biscuits…
If you were making biscuits, what would you whip up to pop in this tin? Do you have a favourite biscuit or cookie recipe I should have a go at? Can you tempt me away from the ginger deliciousness?
Wow, they totally look so delicious and so professional! I have made Cornish Fairings before and they were gorgeous but didn’t look as beautiful as your do.
I love the tin, what a perfect fit for the biscuit x
Thank you! I’m a total tin addict, I just can’t resist them. 🙂 xxx
Ooh they sound lovely, I do love a crunchy ginger biscuit. I have been enjoying buckwheat, almond and cardomom biscuits of late 😉
Mmmmmmm cardamom! One of my favourite spices, my mouth is watering now!
My family loved them! Sadly, they didn’t last very long! My husband has asked if I would make some more. It’ll be a pleasure!!!!!! Great recipe! Thanks?
What a gorgeous tin Chris, no wonder you were looking for just the right biscuit. And of course I’m very much in favour of your choice; it’s hard to beat a good Cornish fairing. Astonishingly, I haven’t tried making one since I was a teenager, how shocking is that? My current favourites are Chinese walnut cookies – recipe on the blog.
Cute tin! These sound like the perfect thing to christen it with. I’m not a huge fan of ginger in general but for some reason I can always be convinced by a ginger biscuit 😉
they look so delicious & difficult to resist
I think Ginger Nuts are one of my very favourite biscuits and these fairings looks seriously delicious.
Oooo, I’m excited! This recipe is bringing back happy memories of my childhood trips to Cornwall – how I loved Cornish Fairings. I think these would be easy to convert to gluten free so I’m pinning the recipe for later.
I think they would too Vicky, do let me know how they turn out and if you blog them so I can have a look!
Delicious and easy to make. For extra ginger hit I added chopped pieces of stem ginger
Yum, I love a bit of stem ginger! I bet that added a nice bit of chew too 🙂
It did. I might also try the lemon zest as well as suggested by someone else
I am Cornish, born and bred ( now living in Australia) and always making Cornish Fairings, my children and granchildren absolutely love them. My recipe is very similar to yours but I add the grated zest of a lemon to my mixture for a touch of tang, yummm!
Oooh, top tip, I’ll try that, thanks Hilary!
Lovely biscuits! I will definitely be baking more 🙂
Oh dear I really need to start wearing my reading glasses.I sieved all the dry ingredient together, added the butter then melted the golden syrup ( why i did that who knows)and added that. Weighed each dough ball and rolled them to a perfect ball and put on the baking tray(I wanted these to all be exactly the same)then I realised
…I hadn’t put the sugar in.arghhhh!!. Quickly threw the dough balls back into the mixing bowl and added the sugar.I keaded til well mixed in.
Repeated weighing the dough balls and now they are in the oven.
Will tell you how they turn out. For a competition so no pressure whatsoever!!! 🙁
Oh my goodness, this is exactly the sort of thing I would do! I hope they turned out ok!
I love a recipe that works first time. These look so professional and taste delicious.
I’m so pleased, thank you!
They went down a treat, fabulous recipe and loved the authentic crackle! X
Hi, can you explain what ‘ground mixed spice’ is? Thank you
Hi Mary Ann, sure I can! Mixed spice is a spice blend used a lot in English sweet baking, particularly at Christmas! If you can’t get it and want to make it yourself it typically contains:
1 Tbs ground allspice
1 Tbs ground cinnamon
1 Tbs ground nutmeg
2 tsp ground mace
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground Ginger
Hope that helps! Chris x
Just made these and they look just like the photo and taste delicious. Will be making them agai!
First time of making these…yummy
Will definitely make again
Just made this and followed the recipe. Divided them as stated and left space they just went all runny and spread all over the tin not crisp at all. What have I done wrong? Help
Hmmm…there are several reasons why biscuits might spread more than you’d like. My first thought would be that your oven temperature may be a little too hot but it may not be that at all! Do you want to email me and we can trouble shoot the recipe together to see where the problem might lie? This one is usual a really reliable one so I’m sure we can track down why it’s not working for you. Drop me a line chris@thinlyspread.co.uk and we’ll see what we can do. x