Gingerbread cookies are some of my absolute favorite cookies in the world! Which speak to winter an open fire, mulled wine, companionship the cheer and laughter
greeted by the rich bouquet of spices and scents wafting through the air. This
is what these cookies represent to me. More over Sweden has a rich history dating
back to the middle ages when they were baked by nuns who sometimes even hung them
as decorations. Though Armenians may have first baked gingerbread, the cookie is
Swedish through and through, it is also one of the countries national cookies.
Some fun facts; while commonly referred to as gingerbread here
in the States it is also sometimes known in Europe as pepper bread this is
impart due to how valuable pepper once was here’s were a little marketing and
branding can really sell a product. Back in the 1400’s anything with any spice
at all would tend to be labeled pepper even if there was no pepper in it to
begin with. It’s why the chili fruit became the chili pepper, you see when Columbus introduced the
chili to Isabella the closest thing he could compare it to was, pepper.
Horseradish is another spice sometimes referred to as root pepper or pepper
root. Ginger also happens to be one of the five categories in the fiery spices the
others being the fore mentioned pepper, mustard, horseradish and of course chili
peppers
There are several types of cookies such as the ‘drop cookie’, a
chocolate chip cookie is a good example of a drop cookie as the name would suggest
the cookie dough once prepared is simply scooped out and dropped onto the sheet
pan and baked in the oven. The gingerbread cookie on the other hand is a so
called ‘rolled cookie’ which is dough that is placed in the refrigerator first
to rest before being rolled out and cut into a shape and baked. Knowing this, I
cheat doing one thing slightly different, once I have formed my dough it is
still very pliable because the butter hasn’t yet settled, I take advantage of
this fact and roll the dough out and cut it first before refrigerating it almost
like an ‘ice box cookie’ which is cookie dough shaped into a log and refrigerated
before being simply sliced into round cookies and baked.
One last note, some recipes call for egg others call for cream, I am using cream here but if you would like to try it substituting egg, here's a quick reference; 1 large standard egg is equal to one deciliter (dl)
One last note, some recipes call for egg others call for cream, I am using cream here but if you would like to try it substituting egg, here's a quick reference; 1 large standard egg is equal to one deciliter (dl)
Shopping List
Butter
Heavy cream
Syrup, I use a lighter beet sugar verity
Bakers or caster sugar
Unbleached all purpose (AP) flour
Baking powder
Ginger
Cloves
Cinnamon
My Mad Method
Transfer to a mixed and add 1.5 dl cream pulse to combine
Add 700g AP flour, ½ to ¾ tsp baking powder, 1 tsp ginger, 1 tsp
ground cinnamon, 1 tsp ground cloves and puree to create a cohesive dough
When dough is achieves transfer to a lightly dusted work surface
and let rest 10 to 15 minutes
Divide the dough, then roll the dough out about 3 to 5 mm thick, making sure to keep
the dough as even as possible, remove or seal any rips or tears
Cut out the shape you like and lay them on a sheet pan that has
been covered by greased parchment paper refrigerate overnight, then bake 8 to 10
minutes or until done in a 225c preheated oven
When they come out of the oven let them cool on a wire wrack
Ready to serve!!
Here’s a shot of some we were baking for the Holidays a couple
years back, in total we baked 8,000!
