This is a blog about root ginger – one of the best spices about whether it is fresh or dried and ground.  I think it is one of those spices that you love more and more as you grow older.  As a child I remember thinking ginger was quite spicy, however, now I find it a lovely warming flavour that is so versatile in both savoury and sweet dishes.

If any of you watched BBC2’s “The Great British Bake Off” this week you might understand why ginger has been on the brain.  As I watched the competitors construct their impressive gingerbread structures, I started to crave ginger biscuits, in particular a Ginger Cream biscuit.  I was first introduced to Fox’s Ginger Crunch Creams by a friend when we shared a house at university.  She used to keep a well-stocked biscuit tin that would come out whenever we were having a cup of tea together.  After discovering the delights of a ginger cream they very quickly became one of my favourite biscuits.   Unfortunately, living in France means that I very rarely get to have a Fox’s Ginger Crunch Cream, so yesterday I decided to try and make a biscuit that was similar.

The end result was more like a cookie than a biscuit, but they did the trick and ended my craving for a ginger biscuit. I made half of the biscuits into ginger creams and kept the other half as unadulterated ginger biscuits. On the plus side I still have loads left in a biscuit tin so I can enjoy them for a while!

Ginger Biscuits with a Vanilla Cream

Ingredients:

 Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 190C fan.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a food processor.
3. Then add all of the other ingredients and pulse until the biscuit dough fully combined.
4. Place the dough in a bowl, cover with cling film and then place in the fridge out 30-45 minutes. (This step isn’t strictly necessary but it makes the dough easier to handle).
5. Once chilled, shape the dough into golf sized balls, then place on a baking tray which you have lined with greaseproof paper.
6. Using a fork flatten the balls slightly before placing in the oven for 8-10 minutes.  Make sure you keep an eye on them.
7. Remove from the oven once cooked and leave to cool.
8. Meanwhile make up the vanilla buttercream by combining all the ingredients together in a bowl until you have a firm icing.
9. Once the biscuits are cooled pipe or spoon the mixture on some of the biscuits and then sandwich it together with another biscuit.