Gingerbreads
The BEST you have EVER tried!
Was genuinely just going back to see how long am I making them and to my surprise this recipe is in my family for the last decade (!!!)
Don’t take me wrong this recipe genuinely takes time, but trust me when I say it that every single bite taste like Christmas! There is no tricks over here… just pure goodness.
To make it fair my aunt - Bogusia, had a recipe for the softest gingerbread I’ve ever tried, but then my friend Monika had that idea in her home that she filled them with plum marmalade or rosehip marmalade… and OMG! When I make that together that recipe come to live :)
Honestly guys those are the softest, the nicest bite of Christmas and true goodness you’ve ever tried :) Really worth the effort!
P.S. What I normally do is make the dough the night before and next day make a big bake off :)
Ingredients:
1,125g of plain flour (type 500/550 are fab) - do have up to 2kg in total as can be handy, in case it will be too loose and you need extra for rolling ;)
3x eggs
250ml of artificial honey or agave syrup
200g of brown sugar
375g of butter (real, good one!)
1x bag of chocolate powder pudding (like from Dr.Oetker - that you just add some warm milk :) but just the powder you need)
125ml of milk
1x teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
1/2 of the small bag of baking powder (from Dr.Oetker f.ex)
2x mix Gingerbread spices (from Dr.Oetker /Kamis/Gellwe - any of them you wish, as they are all different and add the extra spice to them)
2x mix of Mulled Wine spices (Dr.Oetker or Kamis have a great variety - available in Polish shops around the world ;))
1x bag of cinnamon sticks or powder (if sticks need to be fully grounded for powder)
1x bag of cloves (full one or powder - if full ones needs to be grounded for powder)
1/4x bag of real cacao powder
2x teaspoons of grounded coffee beans, brew with a bit of hot water (just to cover the beans), stir and leave for few minutes
1x bag of orange peel - add to a pan and squeeze some fresh orange juice and simmer it all. It will nicely soften the peel and give even more flavour. Now if you can’t get that just wash the oranges under boiling hot water and zest to a pan, add some sugar and orange juice and simmer :)
1x big pot/jar of plum or rosehip marmalade
Any almond flakes, chopped hazelnuts, chopped walnuts or desiccated coconut for the topping
Loads of chocolate - I’ve used 4-5x bars typically, melt them in a bowl with some milk and butter over gently simmering pot with water. - if chocolate start looking bad - do NOT panic - just gently add some milk and keep mixing, it will come back :)
Start of taking a big pot, add your sugar and cover with some cold water (just to cover it), then add your honey/agave syrup, butter, brewed coffee and gently simmer until all combine. When that’s ready take it off the heat and add your cold milk (we are trying to cool it all down, as that mixtures keeps the heat for long!)
In a small bowl prepare your eggs and add a decent pinch of salt. Leave on a side
Take a BIG bowl and add your flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cacao, all your spices, chocolate pudding and (if cooler!) orange zest.
When you wet ingredients are cooler add them to your dry ingredients and start making the dough. When it slowly start combining add your eggs. Now if you are planning to just make a dough and leave the rest for following day leave the dough as “runny” as you can. However if you are planning to make it straight away, after combining the ingredients take a chunk out of the bowl and add some flour and start rolling the dough out to make gingerbreads.
Dough will be super elastic and the minuite it will stop sticking to your hands it is perfect! The reason why I prefer to do it this way it’s only to make sure I do not add too much flour, which would make them tough!
When you have it all ready, you have two options, you can either:
Roll the gingerbread dough for maybe 0,7cm tall and bake them and then stuffed them with marmalade or
Roll the gingerbread dough for around 0,4cm tall and leave some extra space from the edge and put your marmalade and cover with excess dough and then cut with cookie cutters
Whichever way suits you best :)
Bake them for 175C on fan for around 10-12mins - cookies are ready when you press them in the middle and dough come back straight away up.
Leave to cool, then cover with chocolate and sprinkle with some goodies!
Store in a sealed bag or container to keep them nice and soft.
Enjoy!
