Lemon ginger cookies – a perfect way to help deal with my current glut of lemons.
I think that, sometimes, it can be too easy for us here in the wide, brown , land to take for granted just how good we have it when it comes to a growing climate. This was brought home to me quite starkly one cold winters day, years ago, when we were sharing a lunch with our new neighbours who had just moved to Adelaide from Leeds in England. We were also entertaining their parents who had come over for a holiday and who were, frankly, a little scornful of my complaints about the winter weather. While I was busying myself in the kitchen I heard Jane, our neighbour, and her mother chatting. They were gazing out the window at our navel orange tree, which was groaning with a very heavy crop that year. Jane’s mother turned to her and said “Doesn’t it look funny, to see those oranges just hanging there like that? It looks like they’ve been tied on to the tree!”
Fast-forward to another winter and I’m still complaining about the cold and, once again, have a groaning citrus tree – but there’s no way I’m complaining about that. We have a sad little orange tree up here on the hill that really tries quite hard, but we also have a lemon tree that hardly ever quits. It has fruit for most of the year round, but saves it’s best efforts for the middle of winter when I struggle to give enough away, let alone use them up myself.
Hence a flurry of lemon dishes appear on the table at this time of year and my baking takes on a much more citrus flavour. I love the refreshing zing of lemon, but when combined with the warmth of ginger it adds another dimension to all sorts of dishes. These delicious Lemon Ginger Cookies are quick to whip up, but the dough does need to rest in the fridge to firm up, so it’s ideal to put together before you go to bed, making it ready to roll out and bung in the oven (that’s the technical term) the next day. It will sit happily in the fridge for a couple of days, giving you plenty of time to bake, or could be rolled into a ball and frozen for much later.
Lemon Ginger Cookies
Ingredients
- 60 gms butter
- 1/2 cup of golden syrup
- 1/4 cup honey
- 270 gms plain flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 cup chopped crystalised ginger
- zest of one lemon
- 1 dessert spoon of milk
- Frosting
- 1 cup sifted icing sugar
- juice of 1 lemon
Instructions
- Place butter, golden syrup & honey in a medium saucepan over low heat to melt, raise heat and bring to the boil, stirring well. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for 20 minutes.
- Add the rest of the ingredients, mix well with a wooden spoon and refrigerate overnight.
- Preheat oven to 170C.
- Line baking trays with baking parchment.
- Lightly flour bench top and scrape dough onto bench. Knead very lightly until smooth, make sure your work surface is well floured, then roll out until 5mm (1/2 cm) thick. Cut into desired shapes.
- Place cut dough carefully onto trays, leaving 2-3cms between each one.
- Bake 12-15 minutes, until just golden but not browned. Turn oven off, but leave trays in to cool for a cookie with a crisp edge and a slightly chewy centre.
- For the frosting - just combine the lemon juice and icing sugar until smooth and a little runny.
- Cool completely, then drizzle with frosting.
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My lemon trees are my pride and joy in my garden and I use lemons all the time. Your cookies look tasty and delicious. Is light syrup what we call corn syrup in the States?
That’s how I feel about many living here in Hawke’s Bay – even through the winter months the Farmers’ Markets are overflowing with wonderful fresh produce and looking at today – hard frost followed by a brilliantly sunny day!
Lemon anything is a winner in my mind! The office is making lemon microwave mug cakes today, cant wait. But I shall whip up a batch of your cookies and pop in the freezer. Love this idea. 🙂
No Gerlinde, golden syrup is very different from corn syrup. It is an unrefined sugar cane product more like a light treacle.
I love the look of your cookies, Amanda, with that splattering of icing. I’ve been complaining a lot about this winter, that’s for sure – it’s been so much colder than what we usually have to put up with. How fortunate to have all those citrus trees! Thinking up possibilities of what to do with them would be a wonderful chore xx
I’m drinking hot lemon and ginger now but I reckon one of your biscuits would go down a treat as well!
Loove ginger and lemon, the perfect winter combination! Unfortunately I don’t have many on my little tree, but luckily lots of friends have laden trees 🙂
I love these cookies! I love the looks and I love anything with lemon in it! Wow, Amanda! This is so YUM!
how I love lemon! These cookies are the perfect combination. Normally, I don’t like many frostings but lemon juice and icing sugar frosting is certainly the exception.