Gingerbread cookies is one of my favorite christmas cookies and I believe that this recipes gives you the best gingerbread cookies that you have ever tasted (everyone says so)!!
I got the recipe 10 years ago from a high school friend who’s mother had it. In Denmark we call it brunkager (brown cookies), but when googling gingerbread cookies, the recipes looks quite similar 🙂

You might think that it contains to many ingredients, is too complicated to make or has a too long resting time (1 week), but please try it before you decide not go make it again, cause I an quite sure that you will find that it is all worth it 🙂

If you consider to make the recipe in your stand mixer, PLEASE the sure that the motor is big enough to run a heavy dough through out the entire kneading time – and if you have Kitchen aid stand mixer I can already now say, from my own bad experiences, that it can NOT do it!! So use your hands instead – that way you will also burn a few calories while kneading (maybe I should wear my heart rate monitor next time I make this recipe, to establish how hard I work 🙂 )

Well…. enough about all my crazy ideas – jump to the kitchen and get started so that you and your family can enjoy these fabulous cookies in the christmas days.

 

Ingredients (300 small cookies)

2 1/5 cup margarine

2 1/2 cup sugar

4/5 cup syrup

8 cups flour

2 tsp. ground cloves

2 tsp. ground cardamom

2 tbsp. ground cinnamon

3/4 cup almonds

3/4 cup candied orange peel, chopped

4 tsp. potash

2 tbsp. water, cold

Melt margarine, sugar and syrup in a sauce pan at medium-low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Stir occasionally to avoid it from burning. Set the mixture aside to cool until it reached body temperature (use your little finger as a thermometer) and make sure that it doesn’t get to cold!

While the cooling you can prepare the remaining ingredients. Blanche the almonds, roast them on a dry pan for a few minutes until they begin to release their lovely nutty flavor. Let cool and chop finely (but don’t blend into flour).
Chop the candied orange peel if it wasn’t already chopped when you bought it.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, except potash, and mix well.
Combine potash and cold water and add to the dry ingredient mixture 1 minute before you plan to assemble the dough. Add the cooled margarine mixture to the flour and use a rubber spatula to fold together. When almost  combined, transfer the cookie dough to the kitchen table and knead thoroughly – approximately 10-15 minutes. The consistency of the cookie dough will stay the same, but the kneading process is very important as it divides all the seasoning and give an equal result to all the cookies.

Cut the cookie dough into smaller pieces, cover with plastic wrap and fridge for 1-7 days (I alway bake 1/4 of the dough on the first day, and wait with the remaining to the seventh day).
Remove the cookie dough from the fridge a few hours before baking, to ensure that it is soft enough to roll out. Roll the dough out (approximately 0.1 inch thick) and cut the cookies with your favorite cookie cutters.

Bake on a piece of baking paper at 400F for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Eat the cookies immediately or store in an airtight container.

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (300 small cookies)

500 g margarine

500 g sugar

2 dl syrup

1 kg flour

2 tsp. ground clove

2 tsp. ground cardamom

2 tbsp. ground cinnamon

100 g almonds

100 g candied orange peel

4 tsp. potash

2 tbsp. water, cold