Ginger bread with almonds and raisins
Ebba, Alma (10) und Ada (5) live in a lovely, airy and partly open plan flat in Prenzlauer Berg. They share this great home with their brother and Dad, who is an architect and has his office just across the railway. Him and his team have designed the whole building, so the family live in his own creation. Ebba works as a photographer and has her studio on the ground floor. They just love their area around Kopenhagener Strasse and as Berliners never seem to leave their Kiez (neighbourhood), this family has perfectly build their whole life around their flat and their kitchen table.
Ebba, what's cooking?
This is a really traditional German ginger bread recipe. The girls love it as it has some mysterious old fashioned ingredients like salt of hartshorn and pearl ash, which sounds like it is straight out of a Brother's Grimm fairytale. All these stories about ginger bread houses suddenly really make sence. And it tastes perfectly like Christmas should taste - Old fashioned.
INGREDIENTS
350 g honey, 100g brown sugar, 100g butter, 1 egg, 500g flour, 1pack vanilla sugar, 1 TSP each of these spices: Ground cinnamon, ground gloves, ground cardamom, nutmeg, ground black pepper, allspice, ground coriander, 2 TSPs chocolate powder, 1 TBS of pearlash (potassium carbonate) as baking agent, 1 TBS of salt of hartshorn (ammonium carbonate) as leaving agent, 1 TBS water, peel of an unwaxed lemon, 1 TSP of fresh ginger, decoration: 2 egg yolks,
topping:500 g whole peeled almonds, 300 g sultanas,
to store:1 apple sliced
HOW TO BAKE IT:
Weigh up all your ingredients. Add the honey, sugar and butter into a pot and heat everything up while constantly stirring. Once everything has melted into a smooth golden gloop, take off the heat and let cool down slightly.
Then add your egg, the lemon peel, chocolate powder and all your other spices. Mix your pearlash and salt of hartshorn with your spoon full of water until dissolved. Add this to your honey spice mix. Now add the flower and knead everything to a smooth dough.
IDEALLY you should now cover the dough with a little cling film and let it rest on the window sill over night. (If you are very impatient, just wait an hour at least.)
The next morning knead your dough again, ideally with a kitchen aid. Then dust your kitchen table with some flour and roll out your dough really thin. (about 1- 2mm)
Now the fun part begins. Cut out your cookies in any shapes and forms using cookie cutters or maybe you even attempt to build a whole gingerbread house with a handmade paper pattern.
Carefully transfer your cut outs onto a baking tray covered with baking/parchment paper, coat all cookies with the egg yolks, using a large brush. Decorate with your almonds and raisins as you like. Now slide the tray into the oven on the 180 C mark. Keep checking on them and remove from the oven after 15-20 minutes.
Leave the cookies to cool and carefully transfer to a biscuit tin with some apple slices (to keep them moist).
After 3-5 days resting time your ginger bread will be at it's best !
Enjoy - and remember to share!
Your German lesson: 'Traditioneller Lebkuchen mit Nüssen und Rosinen'