Spicy Iced Christmas Cookies

I made these cookies as a Christmas treat for all my co-workers. They came out really well.

Essential equipment: Festive cookie cutter shapes.

Ingredients:

Biscuits
3 cups flour
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
180g butter
¾ cup dark brown sugar
¾ cup golden syrup
1 egg

Icing
Icing sugar
Water
Assorted food colouring

Method:

Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth.
Add the golden syrup (you can also use molasses or treacle) and the egg.
Sieve in the dry ingredients.
Mix together well to form a smooth dough. If the mixture is too dry you can add a few tablespoons of milk as needed. If it is too wet add a bit more flour.
Divide the dough into two or three portions, wrap them in cling film and refrigerate for at least two hours to firm up.
Roll out chilled dough on a well floured surface until it is aprox ½ a cm thick.
Use cookie cutters to cut out festive shapes.
Place on a greased or lined baking tray and bake for 10 to 12 minutes at 180 degrees centigrade.

Once the cookies are cool you can have fun icing them. Sieve a few table spoons of icing sugar into a few different bowls and add a few teaspoons of water and a few different drops of food colouring to each one. You can then either pipe or spread the icing on. 

I did mine in blue and white and they turned out really cute.