These cookies are a nice light version of Gingerbread. The dough is made like pastry, with the food processor doing all the work.

Sugar and Spice Cookies
makes about 32

1 1/2 cups (225g) plain flour
3/4 cup (165g) brown sugar
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
150g chilled butter, chopped into small cubes
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup (55g) raw sugar

Put flour, brown sugar and spices into a food processor. Pulse with the blade to combine ingredients evenly. Add butter cubes and process until crumbly. Add the egg yolk and process until it just comes together.

Pour out onto your work surface and bring together into a ball. Wrap in cling wrap, flattening it a bit and chill in the fridge for 30 mins.

Roll the dough out between two sheets of baking paper to about 4mm (3/16″). The dough might be pretty solid, so let it warm up a little. Cut out shapes using a fluted 7cm cutter or any other cutter. Carefully transfer shapes to a lined baking tray. They don’t need much of a gap between them as I found they didn’t really spread. Bring the remaining dough together and re-roll to cut out the rest of your cookies.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F). Refrigerate the cookies for 30 mins. This chills the butter and stops the cookies spreading when they go in the oven.

Take the cookies out of the fridge and sprinkle with raw sugar. Press on the sugar with your hand to stick it into the dough slightly.

Bake for about 12 mins until slightly coloured and remove from the oven, cooling on the trays.