Stained Glass Gingerbread Cookies

When visiting relatives for Christmas, what better to bring along than little bakes to nibble on? I've always wanted to try out those gingerbread cookies with a sweet twist in the middle - melted boiled sweets which harden to give a translucent burst of colour and flavour in the middle. So when Sam gave me some new snowflake cookie cutters as an early Christmas present, I knew what I wanted to do with them. As ever, I've turned to Lorraine Pascale for the recipe, from her "Last Minute Christmas" episodes.

Ingredients

For the biscuits

350g/12oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp salt

2 tsp ground ginger

100g/3½oz butter

175g/6oz soft brown sugar

1 free-range egg, beaten (some recipes leave the egg out, but I find the dough is more stable for before and after baking if you add the egg)

4 tbsp golden syrup or honey (honey is more traditional, but I prefer a half and half mix of the two)

150 - 200 g fruit-flavoured boiled sweets in different colours - I used Fox's fruits sweets (or you can try some fruit gums, if you prefer a more chewy rather than crunchy result)

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
2. For the biscuits, mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and ginger together in a bowl.
3. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, then stir in the sugar.
4. In another bowl, beat together the egg and golden syrup, then pour this mixture into the flour mixture and mix to make a smooth dough, kneading lightly with your hands.
5. Crush the sweets in a plastic food bag using a rolling pin. I found this quite difficult, so I just cut some of the boiled sweets in half.

1. Roll the dough out on a floured work surface to about 0.5cm/¼in thick, then cut into shapes using a selection of Christmas-themed cookie cutters. Transfer the biscuits to baking sheets lined with baking paper.
2. Cut out shapes in the centre of each biscuit, with a smaller cookie cutter if you have one, or just cut out a design with a knife. Make sure you leave a good edge all around the biscuit. Completely fill the hole in each biscuit with crushed boiled sweets. The best results come from leaving quite a generous mound to get a thick layer of the sweet with a bold colour.

1. Make a hole at the top of each biscuit using a drinking straw if you want to be able to thread a ribbon through it later. Bake the biscuits in the oven for 10-12 minutes, or until golden-brown.
2. Remove the biscuits from the oven. While they're still warm, check that the holes are still there - if not, push a straw through again. Do not remove the biscuits from the baking tray until they have cooled because the boiled sweets need to harden, and the biscuit might crack. Once the sweets have hardened, gently lift the biscuits onto a wire rack with a palette knife to finish cooling.

As ever, this was a great recipe and all but one disappeared within a few days!

Happy Holidays