Gingerbread Cookies

Melt butter, sugar and spices. Melt the butter, sugar, treacle, spices and salt together in a saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth, without letting it boil. Melting rather than creaming lets the treacle and spices disperse evenly through the fat before the dough comes together.

Cool and add egg. Pour the mixture into a bowl and leave to cool for 10 minutes until lukewarm, then beat in the egg. Cooling first stops the warm mixture from scrambling the egg as it goes in.

Make the dough. Stir in the flour and bicarbonate of soda to form a soft, sticky dough, without adding extra flour even though it feels tacky. Extra flour at this stage dries the dough out and makes the baked cookies tough rather than tender.

Chill the dough. Pat the dough into 2 discs, wrap, and chill for at least 1 hour until firm enough to roll.

Heat the oven. Turn the oven on to 175°C (155°C fan) at least 20 minutes before the first tray goes in.

Roll and cut. Roll each disc between sheets of baking paper to 5mm thick, cut out shapes, and re-roll the scraps once. Space the cut-outs 3cm apart on the lined metal trays.

Bake. Bake one tray at a time for 9-11 minutes, until the edges are firm and the tops look dry; thinner or smaller shapes need less time. The dough is already dark from the treacle, so judge doneness by firmness and dryness rather than colour.

Cool on a rack. Leave them on the tray for 5 minutes to firm up, then lift onto a wire rack until completely cold.

Ice and decorate. Mix the icing sugar with the lemon juice to a thick, pipeable paste, then decorate the cookies once they're completely cool. Leave to set for 1 hour before stacking or storing.