Golden Spiced Christmas Biscuits

This year I've tried to add some Christmas baking into the kids Advent calendars, so that they're not having chocolate every day. Weekends really are the only time we have for baking, so biscuits were in order this weekend.

As much as I love gingerbread, sometimes they can be a bit strong for the kids. These spiced biscuits have a beautiful treacle flavour from the golden syrup and brown sugar and a nice mild spice from the cinnamon and mixed spice. My husband even proclaimed that they were the best Christmas biscuits I've ever made! Smiles all around.

I think these biscuits are perfect just as they are, but if you do like a more gingery flavour, add 1/2 tsp ground ginger to the mix too.

Decorate with icing pens if you have them, or icing in a piping bag with a very fine tip. You could use  sprinkles or silver cachous if you liked too.

Enjoy them with a cup of tea or coffee when you want something sweet, but not too rich and fancy.

Golden Spiced Christmas Biscuits

1 cup plain flour + extra for dusting

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp mixed spice

75g butter, cubed

1/4 cup golden syrup

Icing pens for decorating

Preheat oven to 160 degrees and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

In a food processor, combine flour, sugar, spices and butter. Whiz until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.

Tip into a bowl and add golden syrup. Using your hands, mix until a soft dough forms.

Tip out onto a lightly floured bench and knead for a minute or so until the dough is smooth.

Wrap in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface until 5mm thick.

Cut out your desired shapes and place onto trays with a little bit of room for spreading.

Bake for about 10 minutes, or until golden.

Remove from the oven and cool on trays before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

When cold, decorate as desired with icing.

Enjoy!