Ginger Cookie Sandwiches (with a lemon cream cheese filling)

These spelt ginger cookie sandwiches have a lemon cream cheese frosting. As my take on the classic Gingernuts, the cookies are divinely crunchy and can be made with all-purpose or spelt flour. The pairing of warming spices, tangy lemon and rich cream cheese creates a match made in heaven.

The recipe for these spelt ginger cookie sandwiches was first published on my former blog, The Culinary Jumble. The photos and post have been updated, and the recipe has been amended to include spelt flour. 

Ginger cookies with a cream cheese filling

The cookies are filled with lemon cream cheese frosting left over from my carrot cake (is it only me who always has leftover frosting?). Delicious on a cake, it was divine between two ginger biscuits. The hint of lemon, along with the sweetness of the frosting, tasted sublime up against the ginger and spice infused cookies.

Although these ginger cookies (okay, let’s call them cookies) are not quite the same as Gingernuts, in terms of texture (these are crunchy but nowhere near break your teeth time as with our British biscuit), the flavour is all there.

What are Gingernuts?

Gingernuts are one of the UK’s favourite biscuits. And no, they are not cookies. Well, yes they are, but you know what I mean. I know that biscuits are something else entirely different in North America, but to us Brits (and our friends the Oceanic crew), they will always be the things we dunk in our tea. 

Gingernuts are teeth-shatteringly delicious. Bite into one without due care and attention, and you might find yourself missing a tooth. That’s why we love to dip them in our hot beverages: they soften up nicely, but still remain sturdy enough to not disintegrate and end up in a soggy heap at the bottom of your mug.

For context, research tells me that what North Americans refer to as ginger snaps are very similar. However, in the UK, if we talked about ginger snaps, we would probably be talking about much thinner cookies (a little like Swedish pepparkakor). Confusing, right?

Despite the name, there are no nuts in Gingernuts. Although I think they’d be awesome with a few roasted hazelnuts. There seems to be some uncertainty about where the nuts part of the name comes from, but many feel that it is referring to the size of the biscuits. We’ve had ginger biscuits in the UK since the early part of the 19th century. It appears that the term nut was used to describe a baked good that was small, and back in the day, the biscuits were a lot smaller than they are now. 

Adapting the ingredients

The measurements below make around 12 cookie sandwiches (so, 24 cookies in total). However, you can make them any size you like but you may need to adjust baking times accordingly. As always, my recipes are adaptable and you can switch the spelt flour for all-purpose (plain) flour instead. Because white spelt flour behaves almost the same as regular flour, you can just do a straight swap using the same measurements.

Other simple spelt cookies

If you’ve got this far, it’s likely you are interested in cookies made with spelt flour. Here are some more of my favourites:

• Triple chocolate chunk cookies
• Spelt chocolate cookies
• Spelt butter cookies
• Ginger spiced butter cookies
• Swedish chocolate cookies
• Chocolate spelt copycat Hobnobs
• Swedish toffee cookies

Print Pin

Spelt Ginger Cookies with Lemon Cream Cheese Filling

Course Cookie

Servings 12 cookie sandwiches

Ingredients

Cookies:

• 180g (¾ cup + 1 tbsp) butter (softened)
• 120g (½ cup + 2 tbsp) white sugar
• 65g ¼ cup + 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 egg (medium)
• 60ml (¼ cup) dark syrup (see note 1)
• 240g (2 cups) spelt flour (see note 2)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground cloves

Filling (see note 3):

• 55g (¼ cup) cream cheese
• 55g (¼ cup) butter (softened)
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 100-200g (½ - 1 cup) icing sugar (as much as needed)

Instructions

Cookies:

• Pre-heat the oven to 190°C (375°F). Line two large trays with baking paper.
• Beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the egg.
• Add the syrup and stir until combined.
• In a separate bowl mix the remaining dry ingredients together.
• Add to the wet ingredients and work until everything is combined, and a very sticky dough is formed.
• Using either a spoon or your hands, scoop up balls of dough (the dough is supposed to be sticky, so if using your hands, you won't be able to form a perfect ball). I made both large (1½ tablespoons of dough) and smaller cookies to experiment, so how big you would like them is up to you (baking times will need to be adjusted accordingly though).
• Drop the cookie mixture on to the prepared trays with tons of space in between (they are prolific spreaders).
• Bake from between 10-13 minutes depending on their size. The cookies puff up a little, but drop back down to make fairly flat cookies.
• Allow cookies to cool for a while before transferring to a wire rack. Let them cool completely before filling.

Filling:

• For the filling, follow the instructions for my carrot cake.

Assembly:

• Take two cookies of similar size and turn one upside down so the flattest part is facing you.
• Pipe or spread the frosting over and then place the other cookie on top.
• Sprinkle with a little icing sugar and enjoy!

Notes

 

I have converted grams to cups/ounces/tablespoons using online converters. Although I have no reason to believe they are inaccurate, please be aware that I have not made this recipe with imperial measurements.

1. You can use molasses, treacle or dark syrup.
2. You can use all-purpose (plain) flour in place of the spelt. Just use the same measurements.
3. These are estimated measurements - the filling I used was leftover from my carrot cake and so the amount required is just an estimate.