Spiced brown sugar cookies

As much as I love cooking and baking I understand it’s not everyone’s cup of tea – so you can imagine how happy I felt when I noticed that my sister loved cooking and baking, too – I swear I never pushed her towards it: it all began with her passion for brownies and cookies. :)

After tasting some of these cookies she told me they were delicious and she needed the recipe “asap”; she also told me she’d already imagined them covered in chocolate, which I thought sounded like an amazing idea – should I be proud of my sister or what? ;)

Spiced brown sugar cookies
from the always beautiful and delicious Donna Hay Magazine

Sugar coating:
¾ cup (105g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Cookies:
2 1/3 cups + 1 tablespoon (335g) all purpose flour
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
½ cup + ½ tablespoon (120g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (175g) brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup (80ml) golden syrup
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
In a small bowl, mix together the confectioners’ sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
Make the cookies: in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, baking soda and salt.
in the large bowl of an electric mixer combine the butter, brown sugar and corn syrup and beat in medium speed for 2 minutes or until creamy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat to combine. In low speed, add the dry ingredients at once and beat until just combined – you might want to finish mixing by hand; the dough was too soft, so I added 1 ½ tablespoons of flour.
Roll 1 leveled tablespoon of dough into balls and place onto the prepared sheets, 5cm (2in) apart. Bake until lightly golden on the edges, about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on the sheets over a wire rack for 10 minutes. Toss the cookies in the cinnamon sugar mixture to coat then set on the rack to cool completely.

Makes about 50