How to make traditional Christmas gingerbread?
There are some leftover recipes. I prepared these a long time ago, but never published them.
Christmas gingerbread recipe is one of those from the archive, ‘unpublished, but not forgotten’.
components
- 300 gr sugar
- 200 gr butter
- 3/4 dl honey
- 1,5 dl heavy cream
- 2 tsp cognac or rum
- 4 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp cloves, then crushed them or buy ground cloves
- 1 Tbsp baking soda
- 650 gr flour
- Royal icing
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
Instruction
- Melt the butter in the warmed pan and add sugar, and then honey.
- Stir together until melted then set aside to cool.
- Once the mixture has cooled, add heavy cream and cognac and all dry spices and baking soda.
- Then gradually add flour. You want to have a smooth and firm dough.
- Take the dough and cover with the plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for half an hour.
- After half an hour remove the dough from the refrigerator and put on room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 170°C.
- Lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 0,5 cm. Place all them on a baking sheet.
- Bake in the oven for about 10-12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
- In the mintime prepare royal icing for decoration.
- Paint he gingerbread as you want.
Gingerbread is a number 1 recipe if you want to spend some time with your children. No matter their age. Making and decorating these cookies is fun for every generation.
This time last year, I gathered my teenagers to decorate together. This is one of the recipes for which you don’t need to be a pro in the kitchen… a great recipe for some family time.
Gingerbread recipe and …
What will you need?
Some good will, flour, sugar, butter, honey (or either yacon, or maple syrup- you can buy it in our country, it’s only the matter of price), sweet cream, cognac or some other winter liquor, ginger, cinnamon, clove, black pepper, baking powder, and some molds.
How did I knead the dough?
I melted butter in a heated cooker and added some sugar, then I stirred it.
After that, I added yacon syrup, you can add some honey instead.
Honestly, I had to try that syrup, to feel its texture and flavor. It is significantly stronger than our domestic honey, but I wouldn’t change the amount because these cookies are supposed to be really sweet .
Once I was done with cooking, I put everything in a dish in which I would knead the dough for the traditional Christmas gingerbread… of course, before I added flour and started kneading, I chilled the mixture prepared by melting the butter and combining the spices.
After the mixture was cooled…
I added sweet cream and stirred.
And then, start adding everything else, cognac and the dried spices…
Don’t forget… you have to stir all along…
Then, add flour. My flour was mixture of plain white and rye. That is how I justified the ‘traditional’ in the name of the recipe… because it made the gingerbread look rather rustic.
Once my hand was too tired to continue kneading… I used mixer to help me complete everything.
To knead or not to knead?
Some kneading first, then leave it on the side for a while…
Dust some flour on your work surface and get on the job. A little bit to the right, then some on the left… knead it, and … they’re done… Christmas gingerbread.
Just enough time for some rest and for me to get ready for Christmas gingerbread decoration, I covered the dough with foil and left it in the fridge to chill.
Spread and cut… spread and cut…
Until all the dough has been used.
You will need some molds for this part… if you don’t have the Christmas ones, any plastic molds for cookies will do.
I used molds to cut the dough, and placed them in the tinplate… then, I baked them for 10 minutes at 170°C. That’s very little time, so make sure you keep an eye on them, or they can become too dry.
Decorating and coloring…
After the baking part, it’s time for decorating.
I didn’t prepare the glaze myself, I bought it ready made… and simply prepared it by the instructions on the bag. I just added Christmas decoration colors.
That wasn’t the professional gingerbread decoration or pattern, but I saw no point in that. We had some good fun and got completely besmeared in colors… we also signed our entire family along the way….
How do you prepare them?
