Baked: Pfefferkuchen (Spiced Cookies)

I'm a Christmas freak and love to spend December baking tasty treats for ourselves and to give as gifts. These German spice cookies are a cross between traditional gingerbread and lebkuchen. My recipe is based on the one in Another Dinner Is Possible, with some amendments. 

Ingredients:
150g dairy-free margarine (at room temperature)
150g soft brown sugar
100g caster sugar
3 tbps golden syrup
2 tsps ground cinnamon
1 tsp each ground ginger, ground cardamom and ground cloves
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
500g plain flour
Warm water

1. Beat the margarine with the sugar and golden syrup until creamy.
2. Add the ground spices and bicarbonate of soda to the flour and mix.
3. Add the flour mixture to the margarine bit by bit, kneading until you have a good dough. At this point, you may need to add a small amount of water to bring the dough together.
4. Wrap the dough in greaseproof paper and refrigerate for 12 hours, then take out and leave in a cool place for another 12 hours.
5. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6.
6. Roll the dough out to 2-3mm thick and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Lay on baking paper or a greased baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.
7. Leave to cool on a wire rack. They should keep for a few days in an air-tight tin, or they will make a lovely gift popped in a cellophane bag and tied with festive ribbon. The dough will also keep in the fridge for longer than 12 hours if needed - I usually bake half the dough and save the remainder for later in the week, when another batch makes a welcome addition to the empty biscuit tin.