Recipe: Refined Sugar Free Spelt Gingerbread Biscuits

Gingerbread is one of those wonderful creations that I could eat by the plate full. Their buttery softness combined with the flavour of ginger is one I have adored since the first time I tried gingerbread. 

Of course when I first started making and eating gingerbread I was still using what I refer to as 'normal' ingredients...white flour, white sugar...

Now of course, everything I bake is made with either whole spelt or whole wheat, freshly ground in our little motorized stone grinder (I realize we're nuts, so it's ok for you to think that). The only sugar in this house is Rapadura, which is the simplest, best form of cane sugar available. It's simply evaporated cane juice, and in our case, it's organic too. 

So, what do our weird baking ways have to do with gingerbread, I hear you ask?

Well, since I stopped using normal ingredients I haven't been happy with my gingerbread. 

I'd put lovely thick biscuits into the oven only to pull out thin, flat ones that had spread everywhere. Where's the buttery soft biscuit-ness when they've done that?! 

That happened when I used the traditional method of rolling out the dough and cutting them out with a cookie cutter. 

Now I have found a much better method that not only results in a biscuit the desired thickness, it's faster and easier. It also means I can bake gingerbread in summer as there is a lot less handling of the dough, so it doesn't have time to go soft on me.

The trick is to roll the dough out in one large piece between two sheets of baking paper (parchment) and than cook it as a whole piece on a baking tray. When the biscuit is cooked, I let it cool on the tray for 5 minutes before chopping into the desired size. (You have to do this before it cools completely and the biscuit hardens). I've also used a round scone-cutter to create perfectly round biscuits to make icecream sandwiches with.

So, here is the recipe so that you can try it out for yourself.
Have fun and let me know what you think.
Oh, and just in case you want a whole stack of biscuits like in the photos above, I doubled the recipe.
Enjoy x

Refined Sugar Free Spelt Gingerbread Biscuits

Ingredients:

125g Unsalted Butter
1/2 cup Rapadura
1/4 Organic Rice Malt Syrup
1 Egg Yolk
1 3/4 Plain Spelt Flour
2 tsp freshly grated or ground Ginger
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

Method:
1. Beat butter and rapadura with electric mixer until light and creamy. Add syrup and egg yolk and beat until combined. Add sifted flour, ginger and bi-carb soda and beat until the mixture begins to form a ball.

2. Knead on a floured surface until smooth. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Roll dough out between two sheets of baking paper, about 5mm thick is good. Take the paper off the top of the dough and slide the biscuit onto a baking tray, leaving the bottom sheet of baking paper underneath it.

3. Bake for 7-10 minutes until golden. Stand for 5 minutes before cutting with either a sharp knife or cookie cutter. Place the cut biscuits onto a rack to cool.