Christmas gingerbread has a distinct spicy aroma, and if you prepare a mixture of spices by yourself, this fragrance will be unique.
Christmas for me is a time for meeting friends and family at the Christmas table, a Christmas tree with bright and shiny colours and the smell of spices. It’s time to prepare gingerbread, decorations for the Christmas tree, Christmas Eve dishes and waiting for the first star to appear.
Gingerbread has been around the Middle Ages. The dough was prepared much earlier before Christmas because it had to store in the cold for long time. It slowly fermented, and became fluffy, and the flavours and aromas mixed. The high contents of honey and cloves preserved the dough, which could have ripened even several months. Apparently, in Poland there was a custom that a girl before she married, received gingerbread cake as a kind of dowry, from which she could bake gingerbread for a long time.
According to Maria Disslowa’s book “Gingerbreads are the healthiest of all cakes. Their daily consumption regulates digestion, hence they are recommended especially to children, the elderly and people with digestion problems. ”
Today, the longer-roasted gingerbreads have been replaced with much simpler versions, and the quick-fermentation is helped by raising agents.
However, this addition of roots gives the gingerbread this amazing fragrance, and especially when we prepare this mixture by ourselves. I brought all the ingredients from Sri Lanka, including the only real Ceylon cinnamon.
The addition of pepper to the dough is what makes gingerbread, gingerbread. Without pepper, it’s just a spicy cake.
Here’s the recipe for Christmas gingerbread spice mixture:
7 tablespoons of cinnamon powder
3 tablespoons of grated nutmeg
2 teaspoons of cardamom pods
2 teaspoons of whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon of black peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon of allspice seeds
2 teaspoons of coriander seeds
2 teaspoons of ginger
1 star anise
Remove cases from cardamom. The easiest way is to mix or blend the ingredients. You can of course use a mortar.
Now you have the wonderful smell and taste for your Christmas gingerbread. You can also pack it nice and give it as an original gift.
And now an easy recipe for a recipe for Christmas gingerbread:
500g flour
100g icing sugar
100g honey or maple syrup
120g butter
2 eggs
1½ teaspoons of baking powder
2 tablespoons of freshly grated orange peel
2 tablespoons of gingerbread spice mixture
How to prepare:
Mix the butter with sugar, add eggs, honey, seasoning, baking powder, flour and knead the dough.
Knead until it is smooth.
Chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
Roll out and shape into designed shapes.
Bake at 180 degrees Celsius (356K) for 10-15 minutes.
DO NOT keep in the oven for too long, because they will come too stiff.
After to cooled, decorate.
Packaged nicely, they will be an extraordinary Christmas gift.
Merry Christmas!
