Gingerbread Cookies

MAKES 2 TRAYS

For the dough: 14 oz (400 g) sugar beet syrup, 1/3 cup + 2 tbsp (100 g) butter, ½ tbsp (10 g) potash, 4 tbsp orange juice, 4 cups (500 g) flour, ½ oz (15 g) gingerbread spice, zest from ½ of an organic lemon, 1¾ oz (50 g) diced candied lemon peel, 1¾ oz (50 g) diced candied orange peel, ½ cup (50 g) finely diced walnuts

For the icing: 2 egg whites, 3 cups + 2 tbsp (375 g) powdered sugar

Additional: flour for the countertop, assorted cookie cutters (i.e. angel, Santa’s boot, rocking horse), parchment paper

Four days before baking, warm the sugar beet syrup in a pot with butter on low heat until the butter melts. Pour into a mixing bowl. Stir the potash and the orange juice until the potash dissolves and then add that into the bowl, as well. Next, add in flour, gingerbread spice, lemon zest, candied lemon peel, candied orange peel, and nuts, and knead everything into a smooth dough. Leave out, covered, for four days at room temperature. In that time, repeatedly knead the dough thoroughly.

On the day you bake the gingerbread, preheat the oven to 390°F (200°C), unless you have a convection oven, in which case preheat to 355°F (180°C), or a gas oven, in which case preheat to level 4. Separate the dough into pieces and roll them out until they are approximately 1 / 5 in. (4 mm) thick on the floured countertop. Cut out assorted shapes using cookie cutters and place onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Place the baking sheets in the preheated oven (middle rack) and bake the gingerbread cookies for 10-15 minutes. Remove the cookies from the parchment paper while they are still hot and let cool on a wire rack.

Afterward, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Add powdered sugar while you beat—use an amount that will ensure the mixture is thick enough to be squeezed from a tube. Make a piping bag out of parchment paper, fill it with the icing, and cut a small hole in the tip of the bag. Then decorate the gingerbread cookies by squeezing the icing onto them in fine lines (see photo) and let dry.

You can also make holes in the gingerbread cookies, put ribbons through them, and use them as edible decorations on gifts or as Christmas ornaments.

 

It is a quote. Christmas Cookies Dozens of Classic Yuletide Treats for the Whole Family 2015