Heat the butter in a small pot over a medium-low heat. Once melted, continue to cook the butter until it foams up and smells nutty. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes.
115 g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
In a large bowl, mix the light brown sugar and browned butter, scraping all the bits of golden stuff from the bottom of the pot into the bowl too. Add the egg and yolk and mix again until smooth. Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt then stir together to get a firm dough.
115 g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, 200 g (1 cup) light brown sugar, 1 medium egg yolk, 1 medium egg, 240 g (2 cups) plain white flour (all-purpose flour), 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda, ¼ tsp salt
Take half of the dough and place it into a second bowl. To one portion of dough, mix in the cocoa powder (this is easiest to do by squishing together by hand) and set aside.
30 g (1/3 cup) unsweetened cocoa powder
To the other portion of dough, add the ground almonds, ginger, cinnamon, clove and crushed cardamom. Mix together and set aside.
30 g ground almonds (almond flour), 1 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, ¼ tsp ground cloves, 4 pods green cardamom
Chill both the doughs for 20 minutes.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 170°C/340°F fan (190°C/370°F non-fan) and line two baking trays with baking paper.
Roll the dough into balls which weigh around 24 grams – you should get around 14 balls of chocolate dough and 14 balls of gingerbread dough
Place the granulated sugar into one shallow dish and the icing sugar into a second shallow dish. Roll the balls of dough in the granulated sugar first, then roll in the icing sugar. Place onto the baking tray, spacing the balls a few cm apart. Flatten the balls slightly then place into the oven.
60 g (1/2 cup) icing sugar (powdered sugar), 40 g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
Bake for 10 minutes. They will be soft whilst they’re hot but will firm up as they cool.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool then, once completely cooled, transfer to an airtight container for up to 1 week.