Gingerbread Caramel Dodgers

Christmassy gingerbread biscuits with a decadent caramel filling. A seasonal twist on the British biscuits, jammy dodgers! 

Christmas is now less than a month away and December only a few days away. Christmas is a wonderful time of year for many, I really love the festivities and getting together with family and friends. Being a foodie, I also have a great time baking and eating lots of my favourite foods.

This year I’m really looking forward to having Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off work, last year was my first experience working on Christmas Day but this year I’m really happy to be spending the day catching up and relaxing with my family at home.

Since I was a kid, our family tradition on Christmas Eve is spending the entire day in the kitchen baking and getting all the preparation done for Christmas Day. My sister and I have tonnes of fun decorating a gingerbread house and then the evening we spend lounging around watching Christmas films and TV.

By the end of this blogging year I have plans to share a couple more Christmas recipes, the recipe I shared before this one is for Cinnamon Rolls and those are perfect your Christmas Eve/Day breakfast.

Today I have a scrumptious Christmas biscuit recipe for you, pop a plate of these on the table and they’ll be gone in moments.

I’ve baked different ginger biscuits for my blog, sharing these Gingerbread Men and Gingernuts previously. I’m a massive fan of anything gingerbread related and even more so over the festive season. I’m not a lover of a few typical Christmas foods like Christmas cake/pudding, mince pies or chocolate-mint/peppermint flavoured bakes/confectionery, so that’s why I always celebrate gingerbread over Christmas!

I love the idea of putting a delicious, Christmassy spin on the British classic, jammy dodgers! I’ve shared a recipe for classic Jammy Dodgers on my blog, but this Christmas version has the traditional gingerbread flavour from a combination of ground ginger, cinnamon and mixed spice and instead of jam it has a sweet caramel filling – are you swooning yet?

These homemade biscuits look cute and they’re such a special treat served with ice cream or dunked into a mug of hot chocolate or a glass of milk.

(Makes 18-24)

Ingredients:

Gingerbread Dough:

100g butter (salted or unsalted), softened

75g dark or light brown sugar

3 tablespoons golden syrup

1 large free-range egg yolk

225g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon mixed spice

Caramel Filling:

Approx. 18-24 teaspoons caramel/dulce de leche

Method:

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the golden syrup and egg yolk and mix until combined. Now sift in the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon and mixed spice. Mix until a dough comes together. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and flatten into a flat disc, leave to chill in the fridge for one hour.
2. Preheat oven to 180°C / 160°C Fan / 350°F / Gas Mark 4. Line two large baking trays with parchment paper and set aside. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface until it’s approx. 1/4-inch in thickness. Using a 8cm cutter (mine has fluted edges) stamp out 36-48 rounds (how many you get depends on the size of the biscuit/cookie cutter you use) and arrange on the baking trays leaving some space between each biscuit.
3. Using a smaller biscuit/cookie cutter (heart or star shapes are my favourite) and stamp out the centre of half the rounds. Bake the biscuits for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden. Leave to cool on the baking trays for a few minutes, then transport to a wire rack and leave the biscuits to cool completely. Bake off the mini biscuit/cookies for a little less time than the other biscuits as they’re smaller and won’t take as long to bake – I’d recommend 5-8 minutes depending on how crisp you like them.
4. Assemble the biscuits by placing a heaped teaspoon of caramel on the whole biscuits and sandwich with the cut-out biscuits. Dust each biscuit with icing sugar and serve.
5. The biscuits will keep stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Recipe Notes:

• The biscuit dough needs chilling for at least one hour. The gingerbread dough can be made and stored in the fridge for up to 3 days before baking or frozen for up to a month. If the dough is frozen when you’re ready to bake the gingerbread, leave the dough to defrost for 3-4 hours until it’s soft enough to roll out.
• Bake the biscuits for a few minutes less if you prefer a softer textured biscuit.
• If caramel isn’t your thing, alternatively fill the biscuits with apricot jam or lemon curd.

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