We bought Paul Hollywood’s British Baking cookbook after getting hooked on The Great British Bake Off.   The Bakewell Tart was a raging success and Cornish Fairings were the next on the list to try.  A fairing is a soft cookie that feels like a sensuous mass of melting buttery ginger happiness.  The recipe, inspired by Hollywood, is included at the end of this post.

Create your mise en place  by measuring out flour, butter, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and ginger.  Mix flour and butter together until the mixture is similar to fine breadcrumbs.  Add golden syrup.  (A special childhood treat that we were able to get from a nearby UK tuckshop).

Form into small balls and bake.  They spread a lot so be careful with spacing.

Be sure to let them cool before eating so that they don’t give your tongue 2nd degree burns while they are still super soft – they will stiffen up but still remain chewy.

Cornish Fairings 

Ingredients:

• 200g All purpose flour (a little over 1 1/2 c)
• 1 1/2 tsp/7.5 mL baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp/7.5 mL bicarbonate of soda
• 1 1/2 Tbsp/22.5 mL ground ginger
• 1 1/2 Tbsp/22.5 mL ground cinnamon
• 2/3 cup/100g sugar
• 1/2 cup/100g butter diced
• 4 Tbsp/60 mL golden syrup

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F/190C.
2. Sieve together the flour, salt, spices, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.
3. Add the diced butter and rub it in with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs.
4. Mix in the sugar
5. Add the golden syrup and mix together till you get a nice dough
6. Roll the dough into 20 balls (around 1″/2 cm in diameter) and place on a pan lined with parchment paper or a Silpat. Leave at least 2 cm between balls as they will spread.
7. Bake for about 10 minutes or until you get a nice golden color.

Personal Note:

Several other recipes call for a small amount of diced, mixed peel.  We didn’t add this as we wanted to stick with the basic recipe trying Fairings for the first time.