Spiced cookies with royal icing

Tam West

This recipe was created by Karla Goodwin of Bluebells Cakery as a match for Puhoi Valley's Spiced White Chocolate milk.

Spiced cookies

200 g	Plain flour
½ tsp	Baking powder
½ tsp	Ground ginger
½ tsp	Ground cinnamon (Main)
½ tsp	Mixed spice
½ tsp	Salt
50 g	Dark brown sugar (Main)
100 g	Unsalted butter, cold
50 g	Golden syrup

Royal icing

450 g	Icing sugar
2	Egg whites

Directions

To make cookies

1. Sift flour, baking powder, spices and salt into a bowl then stir through the sugar. Add cold butter and rub together between your fingertips until resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Add the golden syrup, stir and turn out onto a floured board. Bring together, kneading until you get a soft dough-like mixture. Wrap the dough in glad wrap and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
3. When ready to use heat your oven to 180C (160C fanbake). Line two baking trays with baking paper. Roll the dough out until roughly 5mm thick and cut shapes using a heart-shaped cutter. Place the biscuits on the baking trays at least 2cm apart.
4. Bake in the middle of the oven for 10-12 minutes until the edges start to turn golden in colour. Remove from the oven and cool for at least 30 minutes before icing.

To make royal icing

Sift icing sugar into a large bowl, add the egg whites and,using a hand held or electric mixer, whisk for about 5 minutes on low speed, first gradually and getting faster once the ingredients are combined. The mixture will turn into a thick paste, white in colour. If not using straight away cover in plastic food wrap.

To decorate

1. Transfer a few tablespoons of the royal icing to a small bowl and add a teaspoon or two of water to soften the icing. You still want it to be quite thick as this will be the outer line icing. Using a piping bag fitted with a small round tip, fill the piping bag with the icing and set aside. Repeat this process, this time adding a small amount of red food colouring to the mixture. Fill a piping bag fitted with a small round tip and set aside. Take the remainder of the royal icing and add enough water, a few drops at a time, until you have a smooth, pourable mixture.
2. Pour this mixture into a small squeezy bottle, cover and set aside. Start by using the white piping bag, and pipe a thin line around the edges of the heart shaped cookies. Set them aside to dry. Once dry use the runnier icing in the squeezy bottle, and fill the entire middle of the cookie with icing. Set aside to dry.
3. Lastly to finish the cookies once they are dry, using the red piping bag, pipe heart shaped swirls on to the surface of the cookies and set aside to dry completely.