Dear Gingerbread men,

Shall I eat you or put you on the Christmas tree? I have a good idea. I use you as a decoration. But after Christmas I have to eat you, because you are so delish and smell so good;)

Many years ago, I saw a recipe of these card shaped gingerbread cookies in a Hungarian magazine. I thought the recipe was pretty good so I wrote down the ingredients and method on a piece of paper. My bad, I lost that note, so I have been trying to rebuild the recipe again. I have been experimenting with new ingredients and shapes (this year I bought snowman moulds) to make the perfect and most delicious little gingerbread men.

Why I love to make gingerbread men?

I love the smell and the delicious taste of the these cookies. Also, it’s a perfect Christmas treat to my little one, who is 17 months old now and can’t wait to get his hands on these little fellows.

Moreover, I love to make them for decorating the Christmas tree. Their nice scent spreads throughout the whole living room. As soon I enter the house I can smell the special scent  of the combination of ginger, honey and cinnamon.

Moreover, these little, tasty characters can make a perfect gift to my loved ones. It is a special, personal gift that everyone will love.

Ingredients:

• 100g butter
• 250g honey
• 100g brown sugar
• zest of 2 lemons and 2 oranges
• 500g flour (can be 250g of spelt and 250g of plain flour)
• 25g baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tbsp. mixed gingerbread spices (ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, star anise, nutmeg and cardamom)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 egg yolk mixed with a tablespoon of olive oil to glaze (optional)

Method:

Heat up the butter, honey and brown sugar in a medium pan until the sugar and the butter melts. Cool it down to room temperature.

Put all the ingredients in a large bowl and add the butter-honey-sugar mixture. Mix it well and rest it in the fridge overnight. Don’t worry if the mixture is still running it will stiffen in the fridge.

The next day, preheat the oven to 180 °C. Sprinkle a handful of flour onto a big, clean surface and roll out the mixture with a rolling pin. Cut out Christmas shapes and place them onto a baking sheet. Bake the cookies for about 5-10 mins, until the top gets golden brown. Don’t put them too close to eachother as they will swell a bit. If the cookies come out a bit hard, that is absolutely normal. The more they rest the softer they will get. Believe me they will look and taste yummy!

If you would like to decorate the ginger bread cookies with icing, just beat up 1 egg white with 200g icing sugar, a bit of salt and 2 drops of lemon juice until it gets really thick and stiff. Put the mixture in an icing bag an use your creativity to decorate them.:)

Enjoy!

With Love,

Aggie x