Kenyan tea biscuits
- Prepare
- 30 mins to 1 hour
- Cook
- 10 to 30 mins
- Serve
- Makes 45 biscuits
A snappy ginger biscuit made with mixed spices. If you like gingerbread, give these a try. They’re not too sweet and are perfect for dunking into masala chai.
Ingredients
- 400g/14oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
- 100g/3½oz icing sugar
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1½ tbsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp ground cardamom
- 2 tsp ground black pepper
- 250g/9oz unsalted butter, softened
- 200g/7oz condensed milk
Method
Sift the flour, icing sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, ginger, cardamom and black pepper into a large bowl. Set aside at room temperature.
Beat the butter and condensed milk together in a separate large bowl, until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add the dry ingredients and continue to beat until the mixture comes together. Switch to a flexible spatula and mix until you have a dough that resembles gingerbread. Cover the dough with cling film and allow to stand in a cool place for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6 and line two large baking trays with baking parchment.
Unwrap the dough, cut it in half and, working with one half at a time, roll the dough out on a floured surface to about the thickness of a £1 coin. Stamp out cookies using a round cookie cutter (or any shape you prefer). Keep any extra dough covered with cling film as you work to prevent drying.
Arrange the biscuits on the baking trays, leaving a little space around each one (they don’t spread much). Bake for 10 minutes or until slightly browned at the edges. They will be a little soft straight out of the oven, but will firm up as they cool.
After 5 minutes of cooling on the tray, use a metal spatula to transfer the biscuits to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Continue to bake the cookies until all the dough is used up. Store cooled cookies in an airtight container, in a cool, dry place.
Recipe tips
We often make these biscuits in a large batch, since they’re great for sharing with family and friends (and disappear from the biscuit tin quickly!).
