I love a soft, chewy, milk choc chip cookie and also the taste of a gingerbread man, but not so much the crunchiness of it.  So I’ve been experimenting trying to create the texture and chewiness of the cookie, with the flavour of the gingerbread.  I think this recipe achieves just what I was hoping for!

Makes approximately 40 cookies

 Ingredients

• 180g of soft brown sugar
• 140g of butter at room temperature
• 1 egg lightly beaten
• 3 tbsp of golden syrup (light corn syrup)
• 1 tbsp of dark treacle (molasses)
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 2½ tsp of ground ginger
• ½ tsp of mixed spices
• ½ tsp of ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp of ground cloves
• ¼ tsp of salt
• 280g of plain flour (all purpose)

Method

1. Cream together in a bowl the softened butter and soft brown sugar.
2. Add the beaten egg to the cream and sugar mixture and mix.
3. Beat in the golden syrup and dark treacle.
4. In a separate bowl, sieve together the baking powder, ginger, mixed spices, cinnamon, cloves, salt and flour.
5. Slowly incorporate the flour and spices into the butter mix, making sure it’s all properly combined and there are no lumps of any one ingredient.
6. Cover the bowl with some cling film and pop it into the fridge for 1 to 2 hours to firm up.
7. Pre-heat the oven to 180C about 5 minutes before you’re ready to put the cookie dough into the oven.
8. Shape the dough into walnut-size pieces and put them on a baking tray; press down lightly on each one with the back of a fork.
9. Bake for 7 – 9 minutes in the centre of the oven.
10. After 5 minutes remove the cookies and put on a cooling rack to cool completely.
11. Enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee!

Domestic Princess tips:

1. Make sure you don’t place the walnut size cookie dough too close together on the baking tray, as they’ll merge to form one massive cookie.  About 2 inches apart is a good distance.
2. Your egg should be at room temperature before adding it into the mixture.
3. Replacing the soft brown sugar with muscovado sugar, will give the cookies a more treacley / caramelly flavour.  Jaggery sugar is the alternative to soft brown sugar if you’re in Bangalore.
4. If you can resist eating them on the day of baking, they taste even scrummier the day after if you store them in an air-tight container.
5. Bangaloreans, you can buy golden syrup and dark treacle from Food World Gourmet on MG Road.
6. Check the cookies after 7 minutes.  If they have a golden colour, take them out then.  The longer you leave them in to cook, the less chewy they’ll be!
7. If you would like a stronger gingery flavour, add another 1/2 – 1 tsp of found ginger.