The lovely people over at Wren Kitchens recently got in touch to ask if I would like to kickstart their new social campaign called ‘Wren Family Favourites’.
#WrenFamilyFavourites
The campaign is being launched as a competition on Instagram. Users are encouraged to share their own family recipes and to use the hashtag #WrenFamilyFavourites.
Consequently, each week the Wren Kitchens creative director and iconic interior designer Linda Barker will be choosing her favourite entries. The overall winner at the end of the competition will win a snazzy AEG food mixer.
The idea behind the campaign is the nostalgia around home cooking with your family. From constructing gingerbread houses as a kid to learning how to make your first spaghetti bolognese, the kitchen is a place full of memories and experiences.
For Wren, the kitchen really is the heart of home. This is why they have launched this charming campaign, to encourage us all to share our nostalgia in the form of family recipes.
Nostalgic Ginger Biscuits
I am kickstarting the campaign with my favourite family ginger biscuits recipe. One of my earliest memories of cooking with my family was making little gingerbread men and women. When I was a kid, the fun was in decorating them.
I’d use smarties as buttons and dunk their feet in chocolate to make it look like they were wearing slippers!
My recipe below is a more sophisticated take on ginger biscuits. No longer in the shape of people and bursting with chunks of real stem ginger.
These ginger biscuits are golden on the outside and chewy on the inside. Just how I like them to be!
They are best served with a hot cup of tea, making them the perfect Autumnal treat.
The recipe below is simple but effective, although you could always decorate them with icing sugar or dunk them in some rich dark chocolate for an added boost.
Ingredients
250g plain flour
115g butter
65g caster sugar
65g light muscovado sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 medium egg
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2tsp ground ginger
75g stem ginger
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.
- Next, cream together the butter and both sugars until the mixture is light and fluffy. This can be done the traditional way with a wooden spoon or using a KitchenAid and it helps if the butter is softened first.
- Add an egg and beat in to the mixture, followed by the golden syrup. The mixture will now have quite a runny consistency.
- Sift together the plain four, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the runny sugar mixture until fully integrated.
- Chop up the crystallised stem ginger into small chunks (amount and size is variable depending on personal taste) and mix into the biscuit batter. Ensure that all ingredients are thoroughly mixed.
- Next roll the mixture into small walnut-sized balls in the palm of your hand, flatten and place onto the baking trays. You may need to put some flour on your hands if the mixture is a little sticky. Make sure that the biscuits are spaced well apart as they spread quite dramatically in the oven.
- Sprinkle the biscuits with a touch of sugar and pop in the oven for 10 minutes until golden brown.
I can’t wait to see some of your own nostalgic family recipes!
