Honey Jumbles

I could inhale a pack of these babies in my 20s. Ok, I could definitely still inhale a packet of these babies. Light and spicy, they’re not all that far removed from a German gingerbread in both flavour and texture.

Makes 25 x 30g biscuits

Ingredients

335g organic plain flour 
2 tsp ground cinnamon 
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp mixed spices 
1 ½  tsp ground cloves 
2 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
100g unsalted butter 
100g dark brown or muscovado sugar 
220g honey
2 large eggs 
250g pure icing sugar 
pink food dye

Method
1. Combine the flour, spices, baking powder and salt in a bowl, whisk to combine and set aside. You can of course use a spoon for this step, I prefer to use a whisk to combine dry ingredients because it does a much more efficient job of distributing the ingredients evenly.

2. Add the butter, sugar and honey to a medium size saucepan over medium heat. Stir with a whisk continuously just until the butter has melted and it comes together. Keep the temperature steady and avoid boiling because this will evaporate too much water from the mix and make the final biscuits tough when they should be soft and yielding. Thorough whisking will also help to break down and melt any clumps of sugar.

3. Remove the saucepan from the heat immediately and let cool for 2-3 minutes before whisking in the eggs, then pour the wet ingredients over the dry and stir just to combine. It’s important that the mixture cool a little before you add the egg as eggs cook when they hit 60C so you’ll have a scrambled mess on your hands. Yuck. Don’t over mix as this will develop the gluten and make the biscuits crack as they bake.

4. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for half an hour or so to make it easier to handle,  preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan-assisted. This dough is very sticky, particularly when it’s warm. Do not add extra flour as this will completely change the texture and flavour of the biscuits and make them doughy. Also, home ovens are most reliable when given at least 30 minutes to warm up as the temperature tends to fluctuate a lot before this point.

5. Take 30g portions of the dough and roll into fingers approximately 2cm wide by 6cm long.

6. Place biscuits onto the baking tray with at least 3 cms between each, bake for around 8 minutes, turn and bake another 7 minutes or until golden brown. Meanwhile, prepare the icing.

7. Add the icing sugar to a large bowl and gradually stir in 2 tbsp of water until it’s a spreadable consistency. To check use a knife to scoop some up then spread it onto some baking paper or even the bench. It should smooth itself out over a period of about 5 seconds. If it’s not quite right adjust with more icing sugar or water but keep in mind that a little goes a long way.

8. To ice dip a biscuit face down into the icing, jiggle it around a little to make sure that icing has adhered to the entire surface and slowly pull it up. Give it a good shake or a swipe with a knife to remove any excess then flip right side up and place on a rack or paper to set.