I have looked forward to gingerbread time every year since I could eat.
For me, they are the definition of successful baked goods. Nutty, chocolatey and spicy.
If you grow up in Nürnberg, you can't get past the typical Nürnberger gingerbread anyway. They are a cultural treasure of the people of Nürnberg and are still as popular as they were in the Middle Ages. The Nürnberg gingerbread makers have existed since the 14th century, but the gingerbread craft was not officially registered as a separate guild until the 17th century. Since then, the gingerbread has enjoyed great popularity and its fame extends far beyond the German borders.
I like them best covered with dark chocolate and almonds on top. Our gingerbread time always starts with the 11.11., the birthday of our son.
Since that day, we always have birthday gingerbread with colorful sprinkles especially for him - besides, 11.11. is also the start of the "foolish season" (carnival season), so the colorful treats fit perfectly.
You can find our family recipe for Nürnberger gingerbread "Elisenart" here.
Ingredients for approx. 26 gingerbread:
- 26 wafers with 70mm Ø
- 200 gr almonds
- 200 gr hazelnuts
- 200 gr candied lemon peel
- 100 gr candied orange peel
- 290 gr sugar
- 5 eggs (size M)
- grated peel of a lemon & orange
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1,5 tsp gingerbread spice (from "Lebensbaum" spices)
- pinch of salt
- 200 gr chocolate glaze with 70% for icing
(alternatively also icing or simply blank)
- almonds or sprinkles or whatever you like for decorating
Preparation:
For the preparation you need a food processor with a grater for nuts.
I use a Kitchen Aid with appropriate grinding - rasp attachment.
First of all, I would like to point out that the quality of the gingerbread depends strongly on the quality of the ingredients. Especially the nuts should be of the best quality you can get. But also the candied lemon peel and candied orange peel must be juicy and should be without artificial flavors.
First, grind the nuts with the candied orange peel and candied lemon peel relatively fine.
In my gingerbread dough there should be no coarse pieces and therefore I also grind the candied orange peel and candied lemon peel. This makes the gingerbread especially juicy.
Mix the nut-citronate-orangeate mixture with the spices, the grated citrus peel and the pinch of salt.
Now beat the eggs with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg-sugar mixture to the nut mixture and mix everything together by hand to form a soft dough.
Let the dough rest at room temperature for half an hour.
Preheat the oven to 140 degrees convection. Line a baking tray with baking paper and spread the wafers on it. So you can estimate how many can be baked next to each other. Please always keep some space between the gingerbread, they still rise during baking.
Prepare a bowl with lukewarm water for shaping. Now place the wafer on one palm and with the other, slightly moistened hand, shape the gingerbread dough (a little more than golf ball size) onto the wafer. Spread them nice and evenly thick, otherwise they will be dry around the edges and not properly baked in the middle. It takes a little practice, but you'll get the hang of it.
Bake the gingerbread for 10 minutes at 140 degrees Celsius and then another 20 minutes at 160 degrees Celsius.
Place on a cooling rack to cool. Then glaze with the desired icing and decorate. It is best to store gingerbread in a cookie tin. Here they remain juicy. But you should not store them longer than 4 weeks, then they still start to dry out.
But honestly, who keeps gingerbread so long? Bake a tray every now and then is the motto and if you have the hang of it, it goes pretty quickly.
I wish you a lot of fun baking and enjoy it!
xx Dipika
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