Easy No-chill Gingerbread Cookies

FOR COOKIES

• 114 g (1/2 cup) Unsalted butter, softened 
• 1 Egg (UK medium-sized) weight without shell = 54g
• 100 g (1/2 cup) Soft Light brown sugar
• 75 g (about 1/4 cup) Golden syrup
• 75 g (about 1/4 cup) Treacle or Molasses
• 455 g (3 1/2 cups) Plain flour/all-purpose flour plus more for rolling
• 2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground Nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground clove

FOR SIMPLE ICING

• 130 g (1 Cup) Icing sugar/powdered sugar, sifted
• 3 1/2 tsp-4 tsp Water
• 1 tsp Golden Syrup/Corn Syrup

FOR COOKIES

1. Combine light brown sugar, treacle (or molasses), golden syrup, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and clove in a saucepan. Let it melt on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. When it just starts to boil from the sides of the pan, remove it from the heat and add softened butter cubes. Stir until the butter has melted completely. Stir in the baking soda, the mixture will increase and become foamy. Stir in the egg.
2. Add the sifted flour in batches and mix using a wooden spoon then knead the dough briefly using your hands until a soft dough is formed (if the dough is too sticky, you can sprinkle little flour on it while kneading). The consistency of the dough should be like play-doh. The dough is ready to make cookies. The dough is very easy to roll out and doesn’t need to be refrigerated at all but you can pop it in the fridge for 10-15 minutes so that cutting out the cookies is easier. Divide the dough into two balls and cover tightly one ball of dough with plastic wrap and pop in the fridge until needed because we bake these cookies in batches.
3. Preheat the Fan oven to 150C/302F (For a conventional oven: 170C/338F).
4. Place a piece of baking paper on your workplace, lightly dust with flour, place the second ball of dough onto the baking paper, lightly dust with flour and roll out the dough using a rolling pin. The thickness of the dough between two sheets of baking paper or plastic sheets should be 5mm. If you want your cookies more crispy, decrease the thickness of the dough and bake for an extra 1-2 minutes.
5. Cut out the cookies using various cookie cutters. Carefully transfer the cutout cookies to a baking sheet lined with baking paper, using a palette knife or spatula (you can dust the spatula with flour for easy transfer of cookies). Place them on the baking sheet about 1/2 inch apart from each other as they will not spread too much in the oven.
6. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes (for regular cookies) or until slightly puffy and edges become slightly darker in colour.
7. Meanwhile gather the dough scrap and again roll out the dough between two sheets of baking paper or plastic sheets. Cut out more cookies. Repeat the process. You have to bake cookies in batches so you can cut and re-roll as many times as needed until all dough is used.
8. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely before icing. Cookies will be slightly soft straight from the oven but will harden after cooling. If you want your cookies more crispy bake them for extra 1-2 minutes. Baking time depends on the size of the cookies and the thickness of the dough. The time for mini cookies will be 6-8 minutes.

FOR SIMPLE ICING

1. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Add golden syrup and water. Add water gradually, starting with 1 tsp until a thick icing is formed that should drip off from the spoon slowly.
2. Fill a piping bag and slightly snip off the tip of the piping bag. Decorate the cookies as you want. Let the icing dry.

NOTES

1. You can store any leftover cookies in an airtight container (separated by baking paper) for up to 4-5 days at room temperature, and up to 10-12 days in the fridge. It will last up to 2 months in the freezer if it is stored in a freezer-safe ziplock bag. First, cool it completely then wrap it in plastic wrap and finally put it in a freezer-safe plastic bag or a container. For the icing, you can keep it in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3-4 days. It will not crystallise due to the addition of golden syrup.