My Lovely Gingerbread is indeed very lovely and unusual from the typical one. It does not consist of honey and it does not get tough. Therefore, it can be eaten right after you make or decorate it. The real smell of the holiday season: cloves and cinnamon with a little twist of cocoa powder. The decoration requires lots of patience, therefore include the kids and have fun with it. This gingerbread is very tasty, especially The Frosting.
Don’t think that I always succeed. You need to concentrate when baking. This year the 1st bunch ended up in the trash. I forgot to add sugar, such a simple mistake. Well, at least I started in advance.
My Gingerbread is suitable for kids from the age 3, because of a possible egg white intolerance. Easy with the spices that can cause a possible allergic reaction.
Total Time: 1 hour + an overnight chill of The Dough
Shopping List
The Dough:
300g of plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon of baking powder, sifted
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon of ground cloves
1 tablespoon of quality cocoa powder, sifted
180g of icing sugar, sifted
1 whole egg
80g of butter, soft in cubes
2 tablespoons of milk
The Frosting:
150g of icing sugar, sifted
1 egg white, whisked into snow peaks
1 teaspoon of juice from lemon
Instructions
The Dough
One Day Ahead
First, prepare the dough. In a large mixing bowl place the flour with baking powder. Add spices, cocoa powder and sugar. Mix well with a spatula until nicely brown color.
Stir in the butter and egg. Add milk and knead the dough with hands until it all becomes one homogeneous piece (it really needs some strength).
Next, wrap the dough in a cling foil and set in the fridge for couple of hours, ideally overnight.
Next Day
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
Bring the dough to a room temperature. Sift your working board with a flour and roll out the dough to ½ cm with a dough roller. You can also use 2 sheets of cling foil and roll it out in between without the use of flour.
Choose the shapes. I prefer Christmas trees, Christmas stars, angels, hearts, snowmen, no limits.
Place the shapes on a baking tray lined with some baking paper. Bake them in the oven for about 10 minutes until they darken a bit. Let them cool down completely.
The Frosting
In a small metal bowl whisk the egg white until nicely foamy. Add sugar and lemon juice and continue whisking until nice, smooth and shiny texture (it should be rather thicker than liquid). Fill up a decorating bag with the mixture and decorate cookies accordingly to your wishes.
Let it dry completely. You can also make a small hole with a needle and hang them on the Christmas tree or wherever else. Just keep up your Christmas spirit.
Always store the gingerbread in a cool place, in a closed box with a small piece of dry bread or apple skin. This way it will stay tasty and beautifully soft.
Makes 40 pieces.
