Traditional Swedish Christmas Gingerbread Biscuits

Gingerbread is a lovely addition to Christmas and this recipe is really delicious. They freeze quite well if you have any left over. Use organic ingredients where possible.

1. Mix butter, sugar and maple syrup until creamy and fluffy, with an electric beater. Add 200ml water, spices and bi-carb soda, mix well. Add flour, mix well.
2. Let the dough rest in a cool dark place (fridge) at least 12 hours or up to 2 days under tightly covered in cling wrap. The dough will keep for a week or two in the fridge if properly covered in cling wrap and kept in container. This way you can use small amounts and bake when it suits you.
3. Take the dough out of the fridge 30 mins prior to rolling out.
4. Sprinkle generous amounts of flour onto a hard work surface. Scoop out manageable amounts of dough, knead for a minute.
5. Again sprinkle generous amounts of flour onto the work surface, before rolling out to an approx 3mm thin layer of dough.
6. The dough sticks to the bench really easily, so make sure you keep up the flour.
7. Cut out your favourite Christmas shapes, using cookie cutters. Gently place biscuits on baking trays covered with baking paper.
8. Bake in the middle in a 200 degrees celsius oven, approx 5 minites. Keep an eye on them; they can change from ready to burnt in a few seconds!
9. Cool on tray.
10. Method for icing: Combine icing sugar and egg white, stirring until smooth. Pipe out the icing in decorative patterns on the biscuits,the icing won't take long to set.
11. Keep your biscuits in an airtight container (glass or tin only, plastic is not as good as it makes the biscuits go soggy).Enjoy!

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