Khorasan and ginger cookies

What does one do when it is so hot?  Baking maybe, but only first thing in the morning.....

I haven't done much baking recently, except of course for the weekly loaves. A slice of melon, some yogurt laced with delicious compotes, fresh berries from the garden, that is all that is required this hot weather.  But then one starts to get used to the heat, and Mr S just remembers things like biscuits, cakes etc....I happened to leaf through Short & Sweet by Dan Lepard last night with nothing particular in mind.  Something must have worked in my mind overnight, and I woke up at 7 with a fancy for a ginger biscuit.  There was a recipe for Spelt and Ginger Cookies.

With all my stash of flour, I was surprised that I had no spelt flour left, but I did have some of my Kamut/Khorasan flour left after making a sourdough a few weeks ago. To think of it, I have been making quite a bit a spelt bread recently!  This is from my recent order from Shipston Mill.   I adapted the recipe.  Also I only had 25g stem ginger in syrup and made this up to 50g with crystalised ginger.  The goat's butter I use is salted, and with the mixture being a little dry after mixing, I added a tablespoon of the ginger syrup from the bottom of the jar.  The proof of the 'pudding' is in the eating, this comment/cliche slipped out of Mr S's lips as he glanced at the biscuits as we prepared breakfast together.

The biscuits were delicious, and very quick to make and also bake.  They are more cookie than biscuit, as they have a softish texture in the middle, unlike the well know make which I would rather dunk than worry about cracking front teeth!

We had a couple with coffee after a salad lunch.  The flour has a nutty flavour and a pleasant texture and I read that it has more proteins, lips, amino acids, vitamins and minerals than modern wheat..but how much more?  well with the internet, we can get these figures...so much information!

Here is the recipe:

Khorasan and Ginger Cookie Recipe 

Set the oven to Gas Mark 6, 200C, line 2 large baking sheets with baking parchment.

Put a small pan onto the digital scales, with a tablespoon in it.  Zero it, then you can weigh exactly

50g golden syrup

Add 50g ginger either preserved in syrup or crystallised or a mixture
and 50g of any butter you have

Warm these gently until the butter melts

Pour the lot into your mixing bowl, and onto the scales

Add 50g golden caster sugar, and
50g light soft brown sugar

Add one yoke from an egg, and beat the lot

Put the bowl on the scales again, with the sieve, and into this measure
150g kamut flour,
1tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of ginger

Sift the lot, and chuck back in any siftings of flour.
Stir to a smooth dough, I needed to add some liquid as the mixture did not stick together, so I used the syrup from the ginger, about 1 tbsp.

Put small balls, about 15g with space to spread.  I got 12 on each tin, and then also 5 on a smaller tin.
They need space to spread.  They puff up as they bake for about 8 minutes, and then collapse leaving a crazed surface as they cool.

Leave them on the tin for a few minutes, then move them carefully with a palette knife to a cooling rack to finish cooling off.  They are soft when they come out of the oven and firm up as they cool.

What I like about Dan Lepard is that in his book, he explains about techniques and gives little snippets of information, which makes good reading even when it is too hot to bake!