The taste of Christmas
When you think about Christmas, it’s rarely the taste of the hot food you think about – it’s the baked goods.
Swedish baked goods for Christmas features a lot of spices, as well as saffron. I suppose it makes sense, the spices give a warm feeling and as they were once increadibly costly you saved them for the festive season.
Swedish gingerbreads are traditionally made with “sirap”, a type of treacle, but as this isn’t commonly available outside of Sweden I have found that you can instead use honey. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is how they were, in fact, originally made.
Enjoy!
Gingerbreads
Ordinary Swedish gingerbreads are made with "sirap", a kind of treacle, but I have adapted it using honey, so that those who can't get hold of this ingredient can still make them.The dough should rest in the fridge for at least 24 hours before baking.
Ingredients
- 420 g honey
- 50 ml water
- 200 g butter
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tbsp groundginger
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp vanilla essence or 2 tbsp brandy for more grown up taste
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 600 g plain flour more or less as needed
Instructions
- Put honey, water and spices in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Allow the mixture to cool slightly. Add the butter in lumps together with the vanilla essence (or brandy if you've opted for that). Stir until everything is dissolved.
- Add flour mixed with bicarbonate in batches. Mix the dough,, a by hand or by mixer and wrap it in cling film. Be careful that the dough isn't too dry, that makes it difficult to roll it out later. Let the dough rest in a cool space for a day or two. The dough will last in the fridge for a month, if needed, and can also be frozen for future use.
- Roll out the dough thinly, to the thickness of 2-3 mm (that's like a pound coin, half dollar or euro coin for reference) and take out gingerbreads with the appropriate cutters. Place the gingerbreads on baking parchment and bake in the middle of the oven at 200 degrees C / 400 degrees F / gas mark 6 for 5-10 minutes until the biscuits are golden brown. If the gingerbread turns dark brown, you have baked for too long. I suggest making a trial batch of five gingerbreads to check the correct timing.