No 6 - Grandma's Ginger Biscuits

My Grandmothers Ginger Biscuits

For reasons I will never completely understand because I was born after it was all over, NZ had rationing during and after WWII.  They must have had butter and eggs coming out their ears but their recipes reflect a period of austerity, ingredient substitution and ‘make-do’.  (Maybe it was the sugar they lacked.)

We loved these ginger biscuits and no one could make them like Grandma.  My mother, her own daughter, reneged on making them, claiming the ‘never come out like Mum’s’.  Grandma’s were always baked in an old coal range that virtually never went out and kept Grandma’s farmhouse kitchen a stifling place in the height of summer, but cosy and welcoming in Winter.

For birthdays, Grandma would send each of us a Golden Syrup tin (the biggest ones are/were the same size as the big ones here now – so not an enormous portion) full of her ginger biscuits, and we were ‘made up’ as the saying has it.  Today our quantity expectations seem to be so much bigger.  I hesitate to give friends just a Golden Syrup tin full, and Mum bakes for her grandchildren in multiples of 2 litre ice-cream packs.

Ginger Biscuits

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup golden syrup

3 big cups of flour

1 tsp soda

1 tsp ginger

Melt the butter, syrup and sugar.  Sift in the dry ingredients.  Roll into balls and put on a greased baking tray, and bake in a moderate oven for 15-20 minutes.  Good made with lard and butter and a tablespoon of vinegar.