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Hollantide Fairings

Hollantide Fairings is a traditional Manx recipe (from the Isle of Man) for a classic spiced biscuit with golden syrup that was traditionally on Hallowe'en and All Souls Day. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Manx version of: Hollantide Fairings.

prep time

10 minutes

cook time

15 minutes

Total Time:

25 minutes

Additional Time:

(+60 minutes resting)

Makes:

12

Rating:

Tags : Vegetarian RecipesBaking RecipesBritish RecipesManx Recipes

Hollantide is the English name for Welsh Calan Gaeaf or Samain in Gaelic, the calendar festival for 1 November, the ancient Celtic New Year; a time of ghostly visitation, divination games, bonfire burning, and post-harvest merrymaking. Basically the fore-runner of Hallowe'en. Hollantide Eve being Hallowee'en itself. So this would be a traditional Celtic (Manx) Hallowee'en dish.

So these spiced biscuits would have been traditionally served for Hallowe'en and All Souls' day.

Ingredients:

85g (3oz) butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
55g (2oz) sugar
170g (6oz) plain flour
1 1⁄2 tsp ground ginger
1⁄2 tsp mixed spice
1⁄2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tbsp water

Method:

Melt together the butter, syrup and sugar together in a saucepan over low heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.

Sift together the flour and spices into a bowl. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in 2 tbsp water.

Add the dissolved bicarbonate of soda to the other ingredients in the saucepan. Take off the heat and mix with the dry ingredients to form a dough.

Cover the dough and set aside to rest for 60 minutes. After this time, turn out onto a lightly-floured work surface and roll out thinly (about 5–6mm).

Cut the dough into any shapes you want, using pastry cutters or a cardboard pattern. The traditional shape for Hollantide being men on horseback.

Arrange on buttered baking trays then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 180°C and bake for 15 minutes, until cooked and lightly-browned at the edges.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool and once cold decorate, if desired, with lemon peel, icing and currants.