Ginger & Limoncello Bites

Today is my mum's birthday. Though I'm at the opposite end of the country to her, I sent a parcel containing a bottle of wine from my travels in Southern France and a bag of these Ginger & Limoncello Bites.

My mum doesn't have the biggest sweet tooth, but she does enjoy the occasional treat. One of her favourite flavours is ginger, so I knew I had to base her present around that. Both she and my grandad are very big fans of limoncello - she went on a trip to Italy a few years ago and came back raving about the stuff. My grandad had memories of limoncello from his days serving in Italy in World War II, and didn't know that it was available in the UK until about two years ago. I'm sure he was happy to revisit this flavourful spirit after such a long time.

Personally, I am not the biggest fan of limoncello as a beverage, but I do enjoy the flavour that it imparts to baked goods. Before packaging up these Ginger & Limoncello bites I might have tried one or two, and can confirm that they taste very good. The limoncello's flavour takes a bit of a back seat to the ginger, but the two compliment each other nicely.

The theme for this month's Baking With Spirit challenge is limoncello, so this is my entry. For those of you unfamiliar with the challenge, Baking With Spirit is a monthly challenge run by me where every month a type of alcohol is chosen. The challenge is then to try and bake with it. All of the entries are included in a round-up at the end of the month, so it's a great way to expose your blog to new readers. There are two weeks left to enter the challenge, so if you think you might want to take part there's still time!

Makes 18
Ingredients

• 3 Pieces Crystallised Ginger
• 100g Butter
• 100g Caster Sugar
• 100g Plain Flour
• 1 Egg
• 50g Icing Sugar
• 20mL Limoncello

Recipe

• Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan and line two baking trays with baking parchment.
• Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth, then beat in the egg.
• Finely chop the crystallised ginger, then stir into the batter.
• Stir in the flour to form a dough.
• Pull small pieces off the dough and place on the baking parchment. You can use your fingers to give them a more uniform shape.
• Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes, or until the bites are starting to brown.
• Transfer the bites to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.
• Put the icing sugar in a bowl and stir in the limoncello. The icing should be fairly liquid.
• Place a piece of baking parchment underneath the wire rack, then use a teaspoon to drizzle the icing over the Ginger Bites.
• Allow to set completely before serving.