{"id":1171,"date":"2010-06-19T11:02:43","date_gmt":"2010-06-19T03:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/?p=1171"},"modified":"2010-06-24T07:55:13","modified_gmt":"2010-06-23T23:55:13","slug":"nannas-gingernut-biscuits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/nannas-gingernut-biscuits\/","title":{"rendered":"Nanna’s gingernut biscuits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are times that I absolutely love to make things that I have made a hundred times before.\u00a0 There is something extremely comforting about knowing a recipe like the back of your hand and knowing the steps inside out.\u00a0 Most of these types of recipes come from my Nanna or my Mum.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I was reading through some of my recipes and chatting with my Mum about all things cooking.\u00a0 She\u00a0is having\u00a0a new oven installed at home while she is here\u00a0on holidays and is a little unsure about her choice.\u00a0 She\u00a0will be working with\u00a0a 600mm wide new oven whereas her previous\u00a0oven was 900mm so she is worried about cake tins fitting and how it will all work.\u00a0 I assured her that it will all be fine.\u00a0 My oven is 44cm internally (which is tiny) and I survive, so I am sure she will too.\u00a0 Our discussions\u00a0lead to when I was a child and the wood stove that we used to have at home, which\u00a0is the oven that I learnt to cook in.\u00a0 Being fuelled by wood meant that it was difficult to keep the temperature constant but\u00a0I\u00a0learnt to use all of\u00a0my senses to tell when something was ready.\u00a0 My Nanna used to tell how hot her oven was by opening the door and holding her hand in there.\u00a0 This innate knowing is also reflected in her recipes.<\/p>\n

When I read the recipe for these biscuits it made me giggle because there was no mention of oven temperature or time to bake them.\u00a0 Typical of my Nanna, you cook them in an oven that is the right temperature, until they are golden brown and\u00a0cooked. \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Another thing that my Nanna used to do, that I still do sometimes, is measure things in the palm of\u00a0her hand.\u00a0\u00a0She\u00a0would always tip things such as sugar, salt and the like into her hand and say “that’s about a teaspoon”.\u00a0 The best part was the recipes always worked, so she must have been right.\u00a0 I can only hope that some of the innate knowledge from both my Mum and my Nanna has rubbed off on me.<\/p>\n

nanna’s gingernuts\u00a0\u2013 (recipe from My Nanna \u2013 adapted by Fiona at Food 4 Thought)
\nmakes approximately 30<\/span><\/p>\n

Ingredients
\n<\/span>125g (4oz) unsalted butter, softened
\n1 cup sugar
\n1 tablespoon golden syrup
\n1 egg
\n2 cups self raising flour
\n1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
\n1 teaspoon mixed spice
\n2 teaspoons ground ginger
\ncastor sugar, to roll biscuits in
\n\u00a0
\nPreparation
\n<\/span>Preheat oven to 180\u00b0C.\u00a0\u00a0Line a baking tray.<\/p>\n

Place the butter and sugar into a medium bowl and beat until light and creamy.\u00a0 Scrap the sides of the bowl, add golden syrup and mix to combine then add the egg and mix again.\u00a0 Sifted flour, bicarb soda and spices and add to butter mixture.\u00a0 Stir to combine.<\/p>\n

Roll “rounded teaspoons” of mixture into balls and roll in castor sugar until completely covered.\u00a0 Place onto baking tray allowing room to spread.\u00a0 Bake for 12 – 15 minutes or until golden and crisp on the outside.\u00a0 Remove from oven and allow to cool for a couple of minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool completely.<\/p>\n

My tips\/alterations:<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0*To make all of my biscuits the same size I like to use a small ice-cream scoop to measure it out, then roll the mixture into balls.\u00a0 *These biscuits are supposed to rise slightly then begin to crack on top, this is what gives them their wonderful texture.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ease: 9\/10.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\nprep time:<\/strong>\u00a025mins.\u00a0 <\/strong>
\ncooking time: 15mins.<\/strong>
\ntotal: 40mins.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

taste: 9\/10.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0These are one of my favourite biscuits.\u00a0 I love the textural difference between the crunchy outside and soft inside along with the warmth provided by the ginger.\u00a0 The castor sugar on the outside adds an extra, slightly unexpected dimension.\u00a0 G isn’t a big fan of these as he does not like things that taste too much like ground ginger. \u00a0<\/p>\n

I like making these for guests because they taste like they are old-fashioned and a little bit special.<\/p>\n

would I make it again:\u00a0\u00a0Yes, forever and ever.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

There are times that I absolutely love to make things that I have made a hundred times before. There is something extremely comforting about knowing a recipe like the back of your hand and knowing the steps inside out. Most of these types of recipes come from my Nanna or my Mum. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[77,92,35,29,23,45],"tags":[5,18,102,96,100],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1171"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1171"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1180,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1171\/revisions\/1180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}