Christmas is on the corner so it's time to think about one of the most important elements of the festive decoration: gingerbread. But this year instead of sharing my family recipe, I will show you how to prepare Swedish ginger thins called Pepparkaka, which is my new favourite since I've tried them at IKEA and then in Sweden.
Pepparkaka is totally different from the Central European soft gingerbread cookies, it's more thin and crispy. As I've noticed, Swedish people love to dunk them into äpple glögg (apple glögg).
If you want to try something different but still familiar this year, give a try to Pepparkaka instead of your usual gingerbread recipe, I'm sure everyone will enjoy eating them. Let's decorate their surface with royal icing and use the cookies as wonderful decorations on your Christmas tree or as edible gifts for your beloved ones.
Ingredients
- 500 g flour
- 100 g muscovado
- 100 g sugar
- 100 g honey
- 75 ml water
- 150 g butter
- 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 1 tbsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp cardamom
- 1 tsp baking soda
- Decoration: royal icing, sprinkles
Instructions
- Add the muscovado, sugar water and honey into a pot, stir them together and heat up this thick mixture.
- Add the butter and stir it till it melts.
- Remove the pot from the heat, let it cool for a few minutes then incorporate the spices and the baking soda.
- Mix in the sifted flour in 3 portions till you get a smooth consistency.
- Wrap the dough into cling film and chill it for 2-3 hours or it's much better if you chill it longer for example overnight.
- Let's knead the dough to get a smooth texture again. On a lightly floured surface roll it to get the as thin dough as the thin one you can still handle without any problems.
- Use cookie cutters to cut lovely shapes out of the dough and place them on a lined baking tray.
- Bake the cookies in a pre-heated oven at 180°C for about 8 minutes.
- Let the ginger thins cool completely on an even surface or cooling rack.
Keep the cookies in a sealed plastic box to keep them crispy!
I would like to see your gingerbread creations too, so feel free to share to send the pictures from the result by email or FB comment.
Pepparkaka Swedish Gingerbread - Photo by © Reka Csulak
For dark brown Pepparkaka biscuits, replace 2 tbsp flour by 2 tbsp cocoa powder.
Stockholm Gamla Stan Gingerbread - Photo by © Reka Csulak
