Cake thirty - two Xmas Cookies

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Gingerbread cookies or Lebkuchen, as they’re called in Germany, are kind of a family. There’s not only one type. There’s a recipe with cream, and one with molasses instead of honey, you can use butter or margarine and according to the percentage of honey you use the cookies change. Then there’s a variety of delicious cookies which are typical of Xmas time, the ones we call Swedish Sugar Crystal Cookies or  the Starry Night Cookies,  for example.

Gingerbread Cookies (German traditional recipe)

200 g butter or margarine

500 g honey

250 sugar 

2 teaspoons spices (ginger, pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon)

15 g cocoa powder

1200 g flour 

1 packet baking powder

a pinch of salt

2 eggs

for procedure see:

http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2013/01/cake-eighteen-gingerbread-decorations.html

Gingerbread Cookies (with cream)  - this recipe is in cups

2/3 cup whipping cream

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup maple syrup or molasses

11/2 tbs ginger

1/2  ts grated lemon zest

1 tbs baking soda stirred into 2 ts water

3 1/2 flour

Lightly whip the cream. Add the sugar, syrup or molasses, ginger, lemon and soda. Beat for 3 miutes. Add most of the flour, kneading well. Cover and let rest at room temperature overnight. 

Turn dough onto floured surface. Knead until smooth. Roll the dough into a thin sheet on a floured surface. Cut out different shapes with cookie cutters. Decorate with sugar pearls or chocolate grains. Place them on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake at 180° on the centre oven rack for around 7 minutes.. Let cool on the baking sheets. 

If you use molasses the cookies will be of a darker brown and of a slightly more chewy consistency.

French Gingerbread cookies 

3/4 cup margarine or butter

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup maple syrup or molasses

11/2 tbs ginger

11/2 tbs cinnamom

1 ts baking soda 

1 cup chopped almonds

2 1/2 flour

Beat the butter, sugar and syrup or molasses, until light and fluffy. Gradually add the dry ingredients and almonds. Mix well. Turn dough onto floured surface. Knead until smooth. Divide in half and form thick logs. Wrap each log in plastic and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Cut into thin slices with a knife, use heart-shaped cutters to give cookies a nicer look. Place them on baking sheets. Bake at 180° for about 10/12 minutes.

Norwegian Xmas Rings
3 eggs
1 yolk
160 g icing sugar
250 g butter
350 g flour
1 yolk 
crystal sugar
Boil eggs for 10/12 minutes. Cool and peel eggs. Sieve boiled egg yolks and mix with fresh yolk and icing sugar. Soften butter and slowly add butter to mixture. Fold in flour and knead until smooth. Wrap dough in aluminum foil and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. 
Divide dough into walnut sized balls and roll out each piece into about a 10 cm long dough snakes. Lightly scramble egg yolk and use it to stick the two ends of the snake so as to make a ring. Cover rings with yolk and crystal sugar. Place cookies on baking sheets and bake at 190° for about 10/12 minutes.

Swedish Sugar Crystal Cookies

250 g butter

120 g sugar

1 egg

400 g flour

1 ts baking powder

1 egg white

1 pinch salt

1/4 cup crystal sugar

174 cup cinnamon

Cream butter, sugar and egg until light and fluffy. Fold in flour, salt  and baking powder. Mix well. Turn dough onto floured surface and knead until smooth. Wrap dough in aluminium foil and refrigerate for 3 hours.

Divide dough into three parts. (Keep the dough you don’t use in the fridge.). Roll dough into a 3 mm thin sheet on a floured surface. Cut out 6 cm circles and place them on a baking sheet. Slightly mix the egg white and spread on cookies. Cover cookies with sugar and cinnmon. Bake at 180° for about 8/10 minutes.

Starry Night Cookies

300 g flour

150 butter

100 g icing sugar

1 egg

4 tbs apricot jam

chocolate icing

glacé icing (100 g icing sugar - some teaspoons water)

Make a mound of flour on a work surface, add butter, sugar and egg. Knead until smooth. Wrap dough in aluminium foil and refrigerate for 2 hours. Roll dough into a 3 mm sheet and cut out your cookies using cutters in the shape of stars and moon. Place them on baking sheets. Bake at 180° for about 10/12 minutes.

Cool cookies. Divide cookies into two groups. Sandwich the cookies with heated jam. 

Melt chocolate over a bain maire and spread over some of the cookies.  Make some glacé icing by mixing icing sugar and water. Cover the rest of cookies. Decorate with sugar sprinkles.

also visit: http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2014/01/xmas-cookies-2013.html