INGREDIENTS:

• 90 g slightly salted butter
• 150 g golden syrup
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 60 g golden granulated sugar (cane sugar)
• 250 g plain white flour (all purpose flour)
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• 1/2 tsp fresh root ginger grated
• 1/2 tsp mixed spice
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• few drops red food colouring
• few drops brown food colouring
• few drops green food colouring
• 1/2 small orange zest

METHOD:

1) Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan, 350F).

2) Put the butter, golden syrup, salt and sugar in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat for 60 seconds on full power. Stir well (careful, it can be very, very hot). Heat in one or two more 30 second blasts until most of the sugar is dissolved. It’s ok if it’s still a little grainy.

3) Add the flour and bicarbonate of soda. Fold through. Allow to cool until safe to handle.

4) Divide the dough into three equal balls. Make a thumbprint in each, then add the ginger to one, the mixed spice to another, and the cinnamon and orange zest to the third.

5) Add the colours too, one per ball. I went for red with mixed spice, green with ginger and brown with cinnamon, but you can go with any combination you like. Knead each ball in your hands until you have an even distribution of colour and spice. Cover the dough with food wrap and chill for 15 minutes.

6) Roll each ball of dough out thinly (about 3mm). Use your cutters to cut out as many shapes as you can. You will need to gather and re-roll the dough once or twice to use it all up. If you like, you can combine the last few bits of dough together and then roll them out create multicoloured sheet of dough to use for your last few leaves.

7) Place your leaves on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Bake the cookies for approx 10 minutes each until just browning at the edges. I baked mine over a few batches.

8) Cool your cookies on the tray for a few minutes until they firm up, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe and photos by: Emily Leary