I adore Donna Hay. I love her magazine, her homewares, her style, her gorgeous store, everything. I’ve been lucky enough to meet her a few times and begged her for a job [no luck there, unfortunately]. I have every edition of her magazines and the vast majority of her cookbooks. All get a workout in my kitchen and her recipes are versatile, simple and usually no fuss.
For my mum’s birthday recently she decreed a ‘no gifts’ policy. The exception was anything home made. With this in mind I set about making her some gingerbread bickies. Mum adores gingerbread and I knew she’d love these.
The recipe is from Donna Hay Magazine issue 6. I use it every year to make gingerbread men at Christmas and it always turns out beautifully.
I dressed the biscuits up with dark chocolate glaze, another Donna Hay recipe, this time from the Simple Essentials – Chocolate book.
GATHER:
125g softened diced butter
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup golden syrup
2 ½ cups self-raising flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
LET’S GET TO IT:
Preheat oven to 190C, line two baking trays with baking paper.
Place butter and sugar in bowl of electric mixer and beat until light and creamy then add golden syrup.
Add sifted flour, ginger and bicarb soda and stir to combine.
Knead lighty on a floured benchtop to form a smooth dough.
Roll dough between two sheets of non-stick paper until 5mm thick. Use cookie cutter to cut out shapes.
Bake for 8 or so minutes/until golden.
Cool on trays.
When totally cold decorate with choc glaze.
CHOCOLATE GLAZE:
Melt 150g best quality dark chocolate with ½ cup pouring cream in a small pan over low heat, stirring until melted and smooth. Stand for 20 minutes to thicken. Then dunk the biscuits in the melted, gooey mix. Yum.
I keep a container of this in the fridge as it can be used to top a big cake, cupcakes, sandwich biscuits together, heated to pour over ice cream or eaten by the spoonful.
the hungry mum 
How are you not ten tonnes?!?!?! : )
hahahha! I gave these away, like I do with most of my baking. Cheese is my thing – at the moment I have goat’s cheese, brie, a blue, and fetta on the go in the fridge [as well as bland kid’s tasty cheese]. That is my downfall 😦
Definitely a tasty looking treat and how lovely that you could replenish some biscuits in your mum’s cookie jar for her too!
A great idea, and one that I think she’d be happy with 🙂
Hmmm, I might use my 4YO as an excuse to make these (!)
They are very kid-friendly. I thought my girls might be put off by the ginger but no such luck…
What a beautiful gift these would make! A great idea for another day!
Thanks, mum was pretty happy with them 🙂
Those look fantastic (and without eggs so my kids can enjoy them too!)
They are quite yummy 🙂
Thanks for popping in.
Wonderful.! Just the phrase “dark chocolate” stirs my heartstrings.
Thanks, too, for liking my posts.
Thanks! Why would anyone eat milk choc when dark is so readily available?
This looks really delicious. I like the cookie shape–it looks inviting to bite into!
They are so delish! I’ll be making them again at Christmas 🙂
Yum! Ginger and chocolate is a match made in heaven for sure! I like the idea of these ‘grown up’ gingerbread biscuits.
They go soooo well together!
Yummi yum!
sure is 🙂
Getting ready for a gingerbread house party and fell upon these. What a great idea for Christmas =)
Yep, they’re perfect for this time of year!
These are brilliant, I’ll deffo use this recipe, Thanks for sharing it!
Cheers! It is a winner 🙂
These look and sound great! I was going to make gingerbread men today with the kids, but I might do this instead…
thanks! I’m in Sydney and today was just TOO HOT for baking [I only made a baked cheesecake but intended to do more].
Ahh. Yes, that totally makes sense.
Anything home made sounds perfect! I’m sure she had a deliriously happy birthday with these yum yums!
They look decadent! Yum!
They are a bit rich & luxurious 🙂
A very sweet gift!
Mum’s already making quite the dent in them!
Ah, thanks for finding me lovely! So glad to have found your corner of the internet also 🙂 Donna Hay is pretty awesome. I didn’t really understand her style of cooking until I saw a couple of her Master Classes on Masterchef and since then… well, I’ve been a huge fan! Love the flavour combo in these cookies. I actually tried a gingerbread brownie a few weeks ago at a local Perth cafe and… OH MY GOSH. I am completely hooked on chocolate and gingerbread now. Never thought it would work but it does! Thanks for sharing this gorgeous recipe with us (you have a lucky mum!) xx
wow, what a lovely comment to come home to 🙂 Donna Hay is my guru – I regularly have moments where I think ‘what would Donna do’ and then the answer is always clear 🙂 Gingerbread brownie sounds TO DIE FOR. Am off to pinterest to find me a recipe! Thanks again for your sweet comment x
So cute! I’m imagining dunking one in a cup of tea right now! ^_^
yes! They would go *so* well with a cuppa 🙂
I wouldn’t have thought of dark chocolate and gingerbread together, but it sounds and looks wonderful! Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Oh yes – dark choc goes with EVERYTHING as far as I’m concerned! Thanks for popping by 🙂
Looks yummy. I hope to have time to do some baking and this looks great. Thanks for the “like” on the Smitten Kitten. I’ll be posting much more about the Catamaran trip over the next week or so.
Thanks! Your site is *amazing* – love it 🙂
Ginger + dark chocolate – what a decadently delicious combination. Merci, too, for visiting my blog.
It is a classic combo, isn’t it? Thanks for popping by 🙂
hi
i really want to try thoses biscuits but i don’t have golden syrup does it really matter
thanks
I think it is actually an essential part of the recipe but maybe you could try treacle or maple syrup & see how that works 🙂
These cookies look really delicious. I’m going to make some! I love gingerbread, but never thought of adding chocolate. That sounds like a perfect combination. I once had gingerbread pancakes with lemon syrup, and that was a great combo, too!
awww, thanks! Gingerbread works really well with dark chocolate. Those pancakes sound incredible! I may have to search for a recipe 🙂
These look fab. I love a good ginger bikkie so I’ll have to try them. Thanks for the follow it’s always nice to connect with other Aussie food blogs, everything is much more seasonally sympatico.
Thanks Elizabeth – you’ll love these 🙂
Ginger and dark chocolate, a match made in heaven, sounds delish!
thanks 🙂 This recipe is the most popular on my blog so you’ve def got good taste!