Nana Topp’s gingernuts
The Topp Twins, aka Dames Lynda and Jools Topp, say, “This is our nana’s recipe, but our mum made these all the time when we were kids. We’d dunk them in our cups of tea and savour the sweet ginger crunch. They were our dad’s favourite as well. They brought back memories of when he was a kid growing up in Gisborne. Mum still makes them at 90 years old.”
MAKES 35 BISCUITS
Preheat the oven to 150˚C. Beat 125g butter, ½ cup golden syrup and ½ cup sugar together until smooth and creamy. Add 1½ cups standard flour (sifted 3 times), 1 tsp ground ginger (sifted 3 times) and ½ tsp baking soda (sifted 3 times), then mix together. Take teaspoonfuls of the mixture, roll into rounds and space out on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Press biscuits flat with a wet finger. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown – be careful not to overcook as they can burn easily!
This recipe is from charity cookbook Mahi Pēkena Māreikura: Baking By The Good Bitches Of Aotearoa ($50), which also features recipes from Dr Ashley Bloomfield, Robyn Malcolm and Gemma McCaw, and is available from gbb.org.nz.