Hairy Bikers ginger biscuits are crisp gingernuts with chopped stem ginger, made by melting golden syrup and butter into self-raising flour and brown sugar. And one batch makes about 24 biscuits of roughly 100 calories each in 25 minutes, from the recipe in Brilliant Bakes.
They call the gingernut “a total classic”, but they add chopped stem ginger “for extra chew”, so each crisp biscuit carries soft flecks of ginger. Then it’s a melted-butter dough shaped by hand, whereas their Ginger Moon Cookies in Asian Adventure are creamed, chilled and rolled to 3mm.
Take them out while they still look soft and puffed, because they only turn crisp as they cool on the tray. So judge them by the golden-brown colour and cracked tops, rather than pressing them for firmness.
Hairy Bikers Ginger Biscuits
Description
One bowl and one small pan give you about two dozen walnut-sized gingernuts, with nothing to roll out or cut. And they’re just the thing for dunking in a mug of tea.
Ingredients
For the gingernuts
Instructions
- Heat the oven: Preheat the oven to 180°C, 160°C fan, Gas 4, and line 2 baking trays with baking parchment. Then finely chop the stem ginger while the oven heats.
- Mix the dry ingredients: Put the flour, ground ginger, bicarbonate of soda and sugar in a large bowl with a generous pinch of salt. Then make a well in the middle.
- Melt and pour: Melt the golden syrup and butter together in a pan over a gentle heat. Then pour it into the well, and add the egg yolk and stem ginger.
- Bring the dough together: Mix thoroughly into a dough, which looks crumbly at first. But keep going, because it clumps together as the syrup works through the flour.
- Shape the biscuits: With damp hands, pinch off pieces the size of large walnuts, about 25g each, so you get about 24. Then space them well apart across the 2 trays and press each down slightly, letting the edges crack a little.
- Bake: Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown with a cracked surface, while they still look soft and slightly puffed. And if your oven browns unevenly, swap the trays round halfway.
- Cool and store: Leave them to cool and firm up on the trays, since they’re too soft to move while hot. Then store them in an airtight tin.
FAQs
How many calories are in a Hairy Bikers gingernut?
There’s no calorie count in Brilliant Bakes, so I worked it out from the ingredients at about 100 a biscuit. So two with a cup of tea come to roughly 200, and most of that is sugar, syrup and butter.
For their diet club ginger biscuits, the lightest version in the books I have is Gingery Oat Biscuits from Eat Well Every Day. And at 71 calories each, they use wholemeal flour, oats and honey instead of golden syrup, which suits anyone avoiding golden syrup.
Is this the same as Hairy Bikers gingerbread?
No, because their gingerbread in British Classics is a sticky cake with black treacle, cayenne and a whole jar of stem ginger. So if it’s the cake you’re after, that’s their British Classics ginger cake.
Gingerbread biscuits are different again, since the one in their Big Book of Baking comes from George, an Austrian baker, with honey and rye flour. And that dough rests for 24 hours before you cut it, so gingernuts are the quick option.
Can I make them without stem ginger?
Yes, because the stem ginger only adds chew, while the 2 tablespoons of ground ginger carry the flavour. So without it you still get a crisp gingernut, just without the chewy bits.
Or swap in about 55g of finely chopped crystallised ginger, since 3 stem ginger balls weigh about 55g in their Great Curries. But if you do buy a jar, the leftover balls suit their sticky ginger pudding, which uses 7.
What can I make with ginger nuts?
Their chocolate fridge cake in Brilliant Bakes takes 200g of shortbread or gingernuts, with raisins soaked in ginger wine and more stem ginger. So 8 or 9 of these biscuits cover it, and the rest go back in the tin.
In the same book they suggest plain biscuits like gingernuts for the base of their lemon and prune cheesecake, blitzing 200g into crumbs. And for the same warm spice in a scone, their ginger and treacle scones come from Brilliant Bakes too.
Is this the recipe on the Hairy Bikers website?
Yes, the gingernuts on their official website match Brilliant Bakes gram for gram, from the 225g of flour to the 3 pieces of stem ginger. But the site asks for a large egg yolk, and it puts the prep at about 10 minutes.
What neither gives is the total weight of the dough, which helps when you’re dividing it up. So expect roughly 600g, which makes 24 pieces at the 25g they suggest.
