So this is a staple in the Swedish home for Christmas. You can either make them yourself or you buy ready-made in the store. There is a lot of different cookie companies that make gingerbread cookies, but homemade is always best in my opinion. So I always make one or two batches of these with my kids and then because of the large number of cookies eaten every year I also buy additional ones. If you need a converter I use this one.
So you’ll need 13 ingredients for approximate 200 cookies and some frosting
- Oven temp: 200 °C (392°F)
- 4dl sugar
- 2dl golden syrup
- 2dl water
- 250g butter
- 1tbsp ground cardamon
- 2tbsp cinnamon
- 1tbsp ground cloves
- 1tbsp bicarbonate
- 15 dl flour + some extra for rolling out the dough
- 4dl powdered sugar
- 1 eggwhite
- 2 ml vinegar or squeezed lemon
- food colouring of choice
Instructions
- Add sugar, syrup and water to a pan. Bring to a simmer, dissolve the sugar and the syrup before removing it from the heat.
- Chop up the butter and add to a bowl with the spices. pour the hot sugar mixture over and stir until the butter is dissolved. Let cool.
- Mix the flour with the bicarbonate and stir into the wet ingredients. It will be a very loose dough, it will swell during rest. Work the dough with a plastic or wooden fork
- Let the dough rest for 1-2 days before cutting out the cookies. You can let it rest either covered in the bowl or transfer it to a plastic bag.
When the dough has rested.
- Turn on the oven to 200°C(392°F). Work with about a quarter or an eighth of the dough, that is easiest. Use flour on the surface you intend to roll out your dough and on the rolling pin. The dough should be between 1-3 mm thick when rolled out.
- Now only your creativity and/or your store of cookie cutters will limit you. This is also the part my kids love because they can choose what shapes they want for the cookies and I try to accommodate them as much as the dough allows.
- Place the cut cookies on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 4-6 mins. Be vigilant as they burn easily.
Frosting:
- Whip the ingredients together, use an electric whisk as it seriously cuts down on the time it takes. Or use someone with arm strength, that works too. if you want to use different colours, just divide the frosting into several bowls and follow the instructions on your food colouring.
- Put the frosting in piping bags and decorate to your heart’s content.
And if all else fails, you can usually, during Christmas time, get gingerbread cookies at IKEA.
Serving suggestion: Serve the gingerbread cookies with mulled wine or milk. They are great to dunk in your drink of choice before eating. Serve them up with Saffron buns(recipe found here).