Ingredients:​

• 300g wholemeal plain flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 heaped tsp ground ginger

• 1/2 tsp of freshly grated nutmeg

• 1 heaped tsp cinnamon

• 1/4 tsp ground cloves (less or none if you're not keen!) 

• Good pinch of ground black pepper

• 100g of cholesterol spread (we use Benecol Buttery)

• 100g of soft brown sugar or any unrefined sugar you like

• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

• 4 tbsp of runny honey or maple syrup if you prefer

• White plain flour for dusting

• Royal icing, ready made in a tube, or mixed and scooped into a piping bag if you're a masochist. 

• Edible glittery things

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 160 fan. 

• Mix all of the dry ingredients and spices together in a big mixing bowl. 

• In a saucepan, add the butter and honey, heat extremely gently until melted together.

• Allow to cool and whisk in the beaten eggs. 

• Pour half of the wet ingredients into the dry and using only one hand, combine them. Add just enough of the wet ingredients to bring the mixture together into a sticky dough. You should use most of it, if not all, as the wholemeal flour will take it up. 

• Wrap the dough up in greaseproof paper and refrigerate for half an hour to firm up.

• Roll out the dough, use festive cookie cutters to cut out any shape you like and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Use a chopstick, or indeed anything pointy, to make a hole at the top of the biscuit. It will puff up a bit as it bakes so make sure the hole is big enough. 

• If your cookies are small, check after 15 minutes, for larger ones, allow about 20 minutes to bake. Turn halfway if your oven gets a hotspot.

• Once the cookies are cool, decorate with royal icing and glittery things and hang from the tree with ribbon. 

• Each biscuit is around 70 calories and is really low in sat fat.