I really thought a couple of weeks ago saw the last of Christmas for me (for a couple of months at least) but somehow I got sucked in again. More edible gifts, this time for an RTE magazine. Here is a recipe I contributed and a snap of work in progress...
Spiced Star-Cluster Cookies
Makes about 75 biscuits
150g plain flour + extra for dusting
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp mixed spice
75g unsalted butter, diced
3 tbsp clear honey
icing sugar to decorate
Sift the flour, ginger, cinnamon and mixed spice into a bowl and rub the butter in to resemble fine crumbs. Add the honey, mixing to form a soft dough. Alternatively, blend the ingredients in a processor. Cover and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180C (350F / Gas Mark 4). Roll the dough out on a floured surface to about 2-3mm in thickness. Using a star shaped cutter measuring about 4 ½ cm from tip to tip, stamp out the dough, re-rolling if necessary.
Arrange the stars on two non stick baking sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes until just golden. The stars will still be soft to the touch so leave on the tray to harden for a few minutes before transfering to a cooling rack.
Spoon some icing sugar into a fine sieve and lightly dust the star clusters before packaging up as a gift.
TIP The star clusters would make fantastic hanging decorations also. Before cooking, use a cocktail stick to make a hole in each star, big enough to thread a ribbon through.
1 comment:
I am so fed up of Christmas. So far I've done 8 turkeys, a goose and at least 108 bloody Christmas puddings and still it keeps coming.
We have just booked a holiday to Phuket over Christmas - it's going to bankrupt us but at least there won't be any goddamn stuffing balls when we get there!
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