THESE THINGS ARE AMAZING.
Thursday is Jamie's night out with the nerds, and there were no Poirots recorded that I haven't seen, so I rifled through Gran's recipes and found a tempting one:
42. Peggy (Garpin) Ginger Biscuits
3/4 lb S.R. flour
1/2 lb castor sugar
3 oz syrup
4 oz butter or marg.
l level tsp. Bicar. of Soda
1 tsp gr. ginger
1 small egg
Melt sugar, butter + syrup in pan + add to all other ingredients. Roll into small balls, place on baking tray. Bake in mod. oven.
That's the recipe as transcribed exactly from her card. I wish I had them here so I could take a picture of the original. Garpin is either the name of a family or a farm. I will consult the in-laws and update you.
Garpin Ginger Biscuits (Em's first try) Yield: 31
8 oz castor sugar
3 oz golden syrup
4 oz salted butter
12 oz plain flour + 1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t ginger
1 medium egg
In a medium saucepan, heat sugar, butter and syrup until just melted. Leave to cool for a few minutes until you can put your finger in it comfortably. Mix together dry ingredients in a bowl, then pour in warm mixture and one pre-beaten egg. Roll into smaller than usual balls, and bake at 350°F for fifteen minutes, or just until the inside of the cracks have turned the same brown as the rest of the cookie.
Verdict: Awesome.
Part of the delight of these family recipes is that they come with no picture, and also they're from a culture of which I'm not a native. So who knows how they'll came out. It was great to watch them through the oven door as they puffed up, then melted down, then formed cracks, then turned a deep golden brown.
I think I slightly overbaked the first dozen, and they ran into each other. So for the second batch I used smaller balls on a bigger pan and took them out sooner. The best example from the first batch is on the left, and from the second on the right.
They are flat and crispy and sweet and gingery and just a bit caramelly from the syrup. Would definitely make again. Mmm.