Day 3: Gingerbread

Although Gingerbread is a Christmas classic, I have never made it before.
So I looked for a recipe that is easy but also delicious, and I found one, yippppppiiiii.
And I gotta tell ya, it was not an easy feat. There are so many recipes out there, it's unbelievable.
But I think one, which is yummy and easy to make.
Actually this recipe calls for molasses and if you have it at home and like it you that, but because I've never tried molasses and we didn't had any at home I used sugar beet syrup, which I absolutely love and the cookies taste fantastic with it in it.

For the Gingerbread you'll need:

3 cups(360g) Flour
1 Tsp. Baking powder
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
3/4 Tsp. ground Ginger
1/4-1/2 Tsp. ground Cloves
1/4-1/2 Tsp. ground Cardamom
1/4 Tsp. freshly ground black Pepper
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1/2 cup(120g) brown Sugar
1 Stick(115g) Butter
1/4 cup(55g) vegetable shortening/margarine
2/3 cup(160ml) Molasse or Sugar Beet Syrup
1 large Egg

1. In a medium size bowl, sift together the flour, salt, pepper and the spices, set aside.
In a large bowl, with a hand mixer at high speed, mix the butter and shortening until well combined for about a minute. Add the sugar and mix for another 2 minutes. Now add the egg and the molasses/ sugar beet syrup and mix until well combined.

2. With a wooden spoon, stir in the flour gradually until you have a dough. When I made it, it was rather soft for a roll out cookies dough, so spread out flower on your working space and knead the dough for a few minutes.
Divide dough in half an wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or better yet, over night so that the dough can set.

3. When you start baking the cookies, preheat oven to 350°F/180°C, and take one half of the dough out of the fridge, so that it can soften.
Dust your work space with flour and roll out your dough. When you want your gingerbread crispy, make sure you roll it out thinly, when you want it moist inside, roll it out more thickly, about 1/2 inch(0,6cm).
Cut out whatever shapes you like, like gingerbread man, hearts or stars.
Bake for 10-12 minutes. I baked them for 8-10 minutes so that they were even softer.

4. Decorate with royal icing, for which you can find a recipe under my post "Spookalicious Halloween cookies part 2".

Enjoy them with some Hot Chocolate.

XOXO Owlicious