Ginger kisses...

Soft, sweet, pillowy cakes of joy.
A true New Zealand pantry classic.

Here's how to make it happen...


125g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
115g butter
85g caster sugar
1 egg
2 tsp golden syrup
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp hot water

For the filling...

30g butter
120g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
A dash of boiling water

Heat oven to 180 C.
Sift together the dry ingredients. Cream the butter and sugar then beat in the egg, followed by the golden syrup (helps to warm the syrup up a little).
Fold in the dry ingredients and the baking soda dissolved in the boiling water. Put small balls of  mixture on the trays. Do this by either rolling the mixture between two (hot) teaspoons or using a piping bag. They should be no bigger than 4cm and be sure to give them lots of space to puff up in the oven.
Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, let sit for a few minutes then transfer to cooling rack.

  
* My first attempt was somewhat unsuccessful. I had put them a little too close together on the trays and my oven wasn't quite hot enough, so they had no choice but to spread into one gigantic monster cookie. Second attempt, I bumped the oven up a few degrees, gave them a little more space and baked them one tray at a time. Much better.


To make the filling, simply beat the (softened) butter, icing sugar and vanilla together with an electric beater, then adding the boiling water as needed. Continue beating until the mixture is very light and creamy..  pipe a good sized dollop onto the middle of one biscuit and squish it out to the edges with another. Finish with a sprinkling of icing sugar.