Grated fresh ginger adds zing to spicy festive biscuits.

Ingredients

• 375 grams softened butter
• 1¾ cups firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1½ tablespoons grated fresh ginger
• grated rind 2 lemons
• 3¾ cups flour
• 2 tablespoons ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon ground white pepper
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• icing sugar or demarara sugar for dusting

Method

1. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Beat in the egg, grated fresh ginger and lemon rind.
2. Sift together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, white pepper and ground cloves. Stir into the creamed mixture. Cover and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
3. Roll out the dough to 0.5mm thick and cut into shapes. Place on a tray lined with baking paper. If using demarara sugar, sprinkle it over the biscuits before baking.
4. Bake at 180ºC for 10-12 minutes. Cool on a cake rack before storing in an airtight container. Dust with icing sugar if you have not used demerara before baking. The flavour of these biscuits will improve if kept for one week before eating.