Ginger and cinnamon stained glass cookies

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.

2. Heat the butter, sugar, golden syrup, treacle, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and chilli powder in a saucepan until the butter melts and the sugar has dissolved.

3. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the flour and bicarbonate of soda. You should have a smooth but fairly stiff dough. Chill for five minutes (it’s important to work with the dough while it is still a little warm as it becomes quite dry and crumbly upon cooling completely).

4. Roll the dough out to a 1cm/½in thickness on a large sheet of greaseproof paper. Using a 12cm/4½in star or snowflake shaped cookie cutter to cut out the cookies. Use a 4cm/1½in star cutter to stamp out the centre of each cookie.

5. Use a palette knife to lift the large stars onto a baking sheet. To make decorations, use a wooden skewer to make a hole in the top of each cookie.

6. Re-roll the remaining dough and the leftover smaller stars and continue to make the cookies in this way until all the dough is used up.

7. Place a little of the ground boiled sweets in the centre of each star, using a separate colour for each cookie.

8. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the cookie is crisp and beginning to darken and the boiled sweet has melted to fill the hole. Remove from the oven and use the wooden skewer to make sure the holes are in tact.

9. Leave to cool completely, then slide a palette knife under each cookie to release them from the paper.

10. Mix the royal icing sugar with a little water until you have a thick paste and pipe or drizzle onto the cookies.

Less than 30 mins preparation time

10 to 30 mins cooking time

Makes 8