Rachel Allen's Ginger and Honey Snaps

Yet another tasty and easy recipe from Bake although I did make some amendments throughout - as always. When I was off on the sponsored ride I needed to take something to each of the three places I was staying as a thank you present and I thought home made biscuits would be quite nice. I'm a real sucker for ginger biscuits even though on the whole I'm not a huge biscuit fan so I've been desperate for an excuse to make these since I got the book.

I think if you followed the recipe exactly you get sort of cookie size biscuits which was fine but I wanted something a little smaller so rather than the 20 biscuits I got about 40. If you'd rather have smaller biscuits then roll the dough smaller than a walnut - they need to be really small as they grow quite a lot in the oven.

Ginger and Honey Snaps

Makes about 20 cookie size or 40 smaller

225g self-raising flour
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
a pinch of salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
100g caster sugar
125g butter, cold and cubed
100g (approx 7 tbsp) runny honey

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. The recipe says 1 large baking sheet but I use two and alternate them. These are quick cooking biscuits so you can be making up a tray while one cooks... and I don't have a large baking sheet anyway (snivel). I use a re-usable baking sheet but you can grease the tins with vegetable oil if you prefer. It's also useful to have a measuring jug with water in it and fork resting in it - you need a damp fork to shape the biscuits and it's good to get this ready before your hands get all doughy.

1. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spices into a large mixing bowl - add the sugar and mix well.

2. Rub the butter into the flour and spices, using your fingers, until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

3. Heat the honey gently in a small saucepan, then pour into the flour using a wooden spoon to mix it altogether.

4. Sprinkle 1 tbsp of caster sugar on a side plate and then, using floured hands, roll the dough into small balls, roll in the caster sugar and then place on the prepared baking sheet. They need quite a bit of room on the sheet as they will expand.

5. Using a damp fork flatten the balls to make biscuit shapes and bake in the oven for 7-10 minutes. My oven blows hot so these actually took just under 7 minutes. You really want these to be just golden brown. If they are too dark they will taste bitter.

6. Leave on the baking tray for two minutes before carefully transferring to a wire cooling wrack.

You can make the dough a couple of days ahead, roll into a sausage, cover with cling film and keep in the fridge. When you want to make the cookies chop a slice off the sausage and roll as above.