Ingredients
- 1 ⅓ cups flour
- 150 grams butter, at room temperature
- 1 ¼ cups brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon bicarb soda
- ⅔ cup demerara sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Prepare the baking trays by lining them with baking paper.
- Place the butter, brown sugar and vanilla into the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat for 3-4 minutes, until combined.
- Add the egg and beat for another 2 minutes, until the mixture is pale and fluffy.
- Add in the bicarb, ginger and flour and beat until a smooth dough has formed.
- Take tablespoons of dough and roll into balls. Add the demerara sugar to a bowl and roll each dough ball into the sugar.
- Place each rolled ball onto the prepared baking trays, leaving room to expand between each ball.
- Bake for 11-12 minutes, until the edges are golden. Leave to cool on the baking trays.
Gingernut cookies are an iconic biscuit that everyone loves. A crispy golden edge with a soft and chewy ginger flavor in the middle. The perfect accompaniment for dunking in a cup of tea or coffee. These cookies are incredibly easy to make, and you must be warned – these cookies are incredibly moreish.
Preparing the Gingernut Cookies
In Australia, you might be aware of the gingernut biscuits you get at the supermarket. They are a firm, ginger flavored biscuit. What we have here is similar, except they are made in a cookie form. That is – they are soft in the middle and won’t break your teeth.
To start, place the butter, brown sugar and vanilla into the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat this mixture for 3-4 minutes, until combined. Add in the egg and beat for another 2 minutes. It seems unusual to beat the mixture for so long, but by doing so we achieve a pale and fluffy mixture, which is what this recipe needs.
Next, add in the ginger, bicarb of soda and the flour. Beat the mixture until you achieve a smooth dough.
Rolling out the Cookies
Rolling out these cookies is actually very easy. Start by preparing your baking trays. Opt for larger trays here that have more room for the cookies to spread. Add a sheet of baking paper to each tray. Fill a small bowl with approximately 2/3 cup of demerara sugar, ready to roll the cookies into.
Take tablespoons of cookie dough and roll them into a ball shape. Roll each ball in the demerara sugar until coated all over. Place the rolled dough balls on the prepared baking trays, ensuring you allow space in between to allow the cookies to spread. Some cookie recipes will ask you to press down on the dough balls, but this is not needed for these cookies.
Use an icecream scoop with a spring release to give consistently shaped balls of dough.
Baking the Gingernut Cookies
The prepared cookie balls should be baked in a moderate oven for 11-12 minutes. Bake until the edges are a light golden-brown color. Remove the baked cookies from the oven and then transfer to a wire rack to cool. The cookies may be still rather soft when they come out from the oven but will firm slightly as they cool down.
The baked cookies serve perfectly with a nice hot cup of tea or coffee. Store leftover cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. The recipe will make approximately 30 cookies.
