Gingerbread - a wonderful and in all senses universal treat, especially on the eve of the New Year.
Bright little men, stars, chocolate houses, birds can not only please little sweet tooth, but also decorate a festive table or, for example, a Christmas tree.
The process of making gingerbread itself is also a great pleasure, because the result of troublesome work becomes real works of art.
Various additives can complement the taste of ginger: cinnamon, nutmeg, candied fruit, raisins, caraway seeds, anise, marmalade, orange zest.
Gingerbread: General Cooking Principles
Real gingerbread cookies are made from choux pastry mixed specifically for gingerbread cookies. The main ingredients are honey, sour cream, butter, chicken eggs, granulated sugar, flour, all kinds of spices.
Cooking method:
1. Put sugar and liquid honey into a pan, pour water on top and heat until hot (do not boil!).
2. Pour the flour into the hot mixture, add spices. It is important to stir everything immediately after adding. If you leave the flour at least for a minute, it will instantly form lumps, which will then be very difficult to get rid of.
3. Leave the dough alone until it is completely cold. It is very important. Not warm, but cold. Only then it will be possible to add sour cream, eggs.
4. Knead long and vigorously. Time is not limited: 10, 15, 30 minutes - the result is important. The consistency of the test should be of medium density and very soft. You can adjust it with water. Too cool dough will rise poorly, and the gingerbread will turn out tough. Too soft - will not hold the form and will constantly stick to hands.
5. Send the baking sheet with sliced dough into the oven. The temperature depends on the size of the gingerbread. For those smaller, 230-240 degrees is suitable. For larger ones - up to 200 degrees.
6. Pour glaze and decorate in all sorts of ways that only fantasy tells.
Gingerbread: classic
The easiest and at the same time the most win-win way to bake gingerbread cookies. The resulting delicacy will have the "very same" taste - the taste of the Great Christmas.
Ingredients:
• a pound of wheat flour;
• a piece of butter about 150 grams;
• a few spoons of brown sugar;
• two not very large eggs;
• dark honey;
• one spoonful of ground ginger, orange peel, cloves;
• soda
You will also need to cook the icing. It is made from one beaten egg white and a glass of sugar.
Cooking method:
1. Heat honey with spices over low heat, add oil at the end. Mix everything and wait for complete cooling.
2. With a whisk or mixer, mix the eggs and granulated sugar. Drain with honey mass.
3. To extinguish soda and put in flour. Then mix it all with syrup.
4. Knead the dough and put it in the refrigerator for at least a few hours.
5. Prepare curly shapes with which to cut the finished gingerbread. Transfer to oven.
6. Bake until cooked. Apply glaze. You can still drip lemon juice. Classic gingerbread cookies are ready.
Gingerbread cookies: fruit flashlight
Wonderful lanterns are very easy to make, they look just magical, and can be perfectly used both as a gift and goodies for children and adults. From the number of products that are listed below, you get two medium-sized flashlights.
Ingredients:
• soft cane sugar;
• molasses - 50 grams;
• half a teaspoon of cinnamon and ginger;
• butter;
• soda;
• 200 grams of flour;
• yolk;
• decorations in the form of transparent icicles or ice floes, can be bought in pastry shops;
• glaze (egg whites, whipped with sugar);
• fruits (any: strawberries, tangerines, oranges, kiwi)
Cooking method:
1. Combine sugar with molasses, put oil and spices and heat everything up.
2. Mix flour with soda and egg yolk. Add a spicy mixture. Knead everything thoroughly, stretch the dough and cut several rectangles from it (approximately 8 pieces are made) measuring 12 by 8 cm. In the central part of each cut small holes (these are future windows). Their size is about 3 to 5 cm. The remaining dough is used for the loops.
3. Lay out the figures on a baking sheet. Previously, it can be covered with paper. Crumble the icicles and place the crumb in the middle of large rectangles.
4. Keep in the oven, waiting for the icicles to melt and fill the windows. Remove and cool. Remove from paper.
5. Collect flashlights, like ordinary boxes. Details interlock with the help of glaze. Attach the loops to her. Through the loops you can thread colored braid and hang lanterns on the Christmas tree.
Gingerbread cookies in the form of men
These funny figures have a classic ginger flavor, however, the original shape allows them to be a great alternative to Christmas decorations. It is enough to add a few ribbons - and no other decorations for the Christmas tree are simply required.
Ingredients:
• wheat flour - about 200 grams;
• a teaspoon of ginger and cinnamon;
• salt, soda, powdered sugar, sugar - to taste;
• food colors of blue and green;
• lemon juice;
• glaze from protein and sugar;
• maple syrup - 2 tablespoons. You can replace the molasses or honey;
• one egg.
Cooking method:
1. Prepare the icing, which will then be used for gluing parts. Beat the protein and gradually add sugar to it (the amount depends on the desired degree of sweetness). Achieve uniformity and density of the mixture. Then put in the fridge. There, the icing will thicken even more and will be able to glue and hold small parts.
2. Prepare the dough according to the standard scheme described above. The outlines of men from the rolled piece cut by hand. The height of each figure is no more than 8 cm. Knead the pieces again, roll out again and cut into strips about a centimeter wide, and up to 30 cm long. Repeat the manipulations with all the figures. At the end, make holes through which the tape will later pass.
3. Bake and cool.
4. Take a pastry bag (preferably a thin spout) and fill it with icing. Whatever remains in the bowl, split in half. One half is painted green, the other blue. Dripping lemon juice into the icing. Then, using a bag and colored glaze, draw the little men eyes, mouth, stripes and buttons, other decorative elements.
5. Thread multi-colored ribbons through the upper holes. Gingerbread in the form of little men are ready.
Finnish Gingerbread
The spirit of Christmas and holidays in Finland begins in autumn. It was at this time that Finnish gingerbread appeared in the windows. Although the Finns are confident that only tourists can buy this delicacy in the store. They themselves prefer to conjure above the stove, creating baked goods with amazing taste and aroma with their own hands.
Ingredients:
• 100 grams of oil;
• a quarter cup of sand;
• as much fresh liquid honey;
• egg;
• a pound of wheat flour;
• a teaspoon of cinnamon and ginger;
• half a spoonful of cloves, cardamom and salt;
• cocoa powder;
• baking powder;
• powder and lemon juice (for icing).
Cooking method:
1. Put in a pot of honey, powder or sand, oil. Warm until mixture is homogeneous.
2. Mix the spices and pour them into the honey mixture.
3. Cool to a warm state and pour in the egg.
4. Gradually add cocoa and flour with baking powder. Let the dough stand for a few hours.
5. Roll out to a thickness of 5 mm. Cut the figures with the help of molds or a regular cup. Put in the oven.
6. Prepare the icing. To do this, mix the lemon juice with powdered sugar. Decorate her gingerbread to your taste and fantasy.
7. Alternative: melt white chocolate in a water bath, add cream to it and pour gingerbread cookies.
Sour Cream Gingerbread
There are no eggs in this recipe, so this delicacy can be interesting for several groups of people at once. This, for example, vegetarians, as well as those who are allergic to chicken protein.
Ingredients:
• to your taste: ginger, cinnamon, cloves;
• half a pack of oil;
• a pound of wheat or rye flour;
• honey, soda, salt;
• three quarters of a glass of sour cream;
Cooking method:
1. Heat the honey and mix it with spices. Keep on fire until foam appears. Then let cool.
2. Grind sugar in sour cream. Without stopping the process, add butter (not melted, but soft!). Pour the honey mixture.
3. Add soda and salt. In the final - flour. If you pour it all at once, the dough will be dense, and the finished product will look like gingerbread in its purest form. If you reduce the amount, it will rise as it bakes. This will add friability.
4. Knead the dough until smooth. Wrap in film and move to a cold place for half a day.
5. After 12 hours, you can bake. Roll out the dough, cut out the figures of the desired forms and put them on a baking sheet. Estimated ready time: 10-15 minutes.
Lean gingerbread
This recipe is a logical continuation of the previous one, however, in a more severe version. As you know, as a believer, people do not consume sour cream, eggs, and other animal products. However, the absence of these components does not prevent sugar-honey cakes to become a wonderful dessert for the whole family.
Ingredients:
• half a glass of sugar;
• as much honey;
• a few spoons of butter;
• three glasses of flour;
• soda, ground ginger
Cooking method:
1. Prepare a zhenku. To do this, sugar should be poured into the cooking container, put on the fire and not removed, until it turns black. Then remove and do not touch a couple of minutes.
2. Pour half a cup of boiling water into burnt sugar and actively mix it with a rotating motion in a circle.
3. Add ginger to the same pan and heat again, stirring all the time.
4. Add honey, vegetable oil. Pour the soda.
5. Pour in flour and knead the dough.
6. Divide the dough into cutlets, put them on a baking sheet. Important: keep in the oven no more than 8 minutes, otherwise gingerbread will turn out to be too tough.
7. Cold gingerbread can be poured over lemon juice and sugar icing. To prepare it, sugar with water must be boiled down to a state of syrup, and then lemon juice is added.
Gingerbread Oatmeal Gingerbread Cookies
If you follow this recipe, the result is a product that looks very similar to oatmeal cookies, but has a unique taste of gingerbread.
Ingredients:
• 300 grams of oatmeal;
• wheat flour;
• a glass of cane sugar;
• on the eye - ginger, cinnamon and vanilla;
• two eggs;
• oil, salt, raisins.
Cooking method:
1. Beat butter with sugar and eggs. Add vanilla, mix.
2. Pour the rest of the ingredients, except for oatmeal and raisins. Stir again.
3. Add cereal and raisins. Put on cooling for half an hour - an hour.
4. Put parchment on a baking sheet, spread gingerbread on it in the form of oblate balls.
5. Bake for up to 15 minutes. About readiness can tell a golden hue.
Rice Gingerbread
The main component of this confectionery is rice flour. It does not contain gluten, which means that it does not carry the possible side effects that modern food manufacturers like to scare. Baking in rice flour due to its high starch content is especially crispy.
Ingredients:
• egg;
• rice flour;
• icing sugar - a quarter of a glass;
• baking powder - half a teaspoon;
• hazelnut nut;
• grated ginger - 2 tablespoons;
Cooking method:
1. Beat egg and powder. Add ginger, ground hazelnuts, flour and powder to the mixture.
2. Mix everything very well.
3. Distribute the remains of powdered sugar on the board. Roll balls of dough in it and put them on a baking sheet.
4. Keep on fire for 10 minutes.
Gingerbread cookies: tricks and tips
1. The main ingredient of gingerbread - ginger - is most often put into the dough in a ground form. However, there are also pieces of ginger in sugar. They can be cut and added to the dough or cream. Then the taste of the finished delicacy will be more pronounced and slightly tart.
2. Gingerbread, unlike cookies, do not acquire density immediately, as soon as they are removed from the oven. This sometimes prevents the hostess from understanding whether her baking is ready. You can determine if it is enough to bake the gingerbread by carefully examining the edges. If they are rosy - you need to get and leave the baking sheet for a while. Ten minutes later, pastries will get the desired crunch.
3. True gingerbread dough is prepared only on sour cream and honey without sugar, molasses and baking powder. Their presence in the composition, however, does not spoil the quality of the product, only a few changes the taste.
4. A good loosening effect is given by vodka, rum or cognac added to the dough (about 3-4 tablespoons).
5. Achieving high-quality, and most importantly, well-bonding glaze is possible only if it is cooked on egg whites, and not on water. Gingerbread cookies can also be glazed with honey syrup, in which lemon, cranberries or other sour berries are added.
