Buckingham Palace is sharing a beloved royal recipe! On Sunday, December 16, the website for Queen Elizabeth II’s residence posted a recipe for “Christmas Gingerbread Biscuits.”
Described as one of the “favorite” items an army of royal pastry chefs create around the holiday season, these cookies require just a handful of ingredients, including something called “mixed spice,” which is very similar to the pumpkin pie spice blend often found in American holiday desserts.
The royal family, including Prince William, Duchess Kate, Prince Harry and pregnant Duchess Meghan, could very well be eating these cookies as part of their annual Christmas Day feast, which consists of roast turkey, vegetable sides and more.
“Its always best to let the dough rest, so it’s great if you can make the dough the night before,” explained one royal pastry chef. “You can also roll out the dough, cut the shapes and put them in a freezer for an hour. This ensures they keep their shape nicely.”
Once the cookies (or biscuits, if you’re feeling fancy) have been cut into festive shapes, they can be decorated with an icing design of your choice. The palace even recommends writing loved one’s names on the sweet treats to personalize them and add “an extra special touch.”
And if you want your cookies to double as festive decorations, the palace also says that once the icing is completely dry you can loop a ribbon through each creation and hang them on the tree.
Take a look at the complete recipe below and consider whipping up a batch of royal-approved cookies of your own!
Christmas Gingerbread Biscuits
Makes 10 cookies
INGREDIENTS:
• 7 oz self-raising flour
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 3.5 oz unsalted butter, diced
• 2.6 oz dark brown soft sugar
• 1.6 oz milk
• 0.9 oz granulated sugar, for dusting
• Icing, to decorate
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Sift together the flour and spices, add the diced butter and dark brown sugar and crumb together with your fingertips.
- Add the milk to form a paste. Wrap in film and allow to rest for minimum two hours. (Best left over night.)
- Preheat oven to 355 degrees.
- Roll out dough to approximately 3 mm (depending on the size of the cookie you wish to make), cut shapes out and lay on grease-proof paper or silicon mat. Sprinkle with a little granulated sugar before baking at 355 degrees until set.
- Allow to cool fully on a cooling rack before icing with your choice of design.
