The word "gingerbread" comes from the word "spice", the presence of which is a distinctive feature of the gingerbread dough. Gingerbread is one of the oldest delicacies in Russian cuisine. In the old days, they were made of different sizes and shapes, decorated with intricate patterns. Today, gingerbread is also made from gingerbread dough.
Cooking gingerbread dough using the choux method
In the old days, sugar was brought from distant countries and was very expensive, so the gingerbread dough was made exclusively with honey. Currently, gingerbread cookies are made both on sugar and on a mixture of granulated sugar with honey and molasses.
Depending on the content of sugar and honey in the dough, it has 3 varieties and can be honey, sugar (made without honey) and honey-sugar.
To prepare honey-sugar dough using the custard method, you will need:
- 3 glasses of flour;
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar:
- ½ glass of honey;
- 20 grams of butter or margarine;
- 2 eggs:
- ½ teaspoon of baking soda;
- 1 teaspoon of powdered spices;
- ½ glass of water.
As spices in the gingerbread dough, you can add cardamom, dry mint, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, star anise, ginger, coriander. The amount of flour in the dough depends on the thickness of the syrup and honey, as well as the amount of fat and eggs.
Put honey, sugar in a saucepan, pour water. Mix everything well and heat over low heat to 70-75 ° C. Then add half the sifted flour and the spices finely ground in a mortar and mix everything with a wooden spatula or spoon. This must be done very quickly. If, after pouring flour into hot syrup, leave it unmixed for 1-2 minutes, then lumps will form, which can be extremely difficult to stir.
Then cool the kneaded dough to room temperature, add eggs, softened butter, baking soda, remaining flour and stir until a soft dough is obtained. It should be immediately cut up and gingerbread baked.
How to make gingerbread dough in a simplified way
Put honey in a bowl or saucepan, add softened and well-mixed butter, eggs, spices and stir everything for 1-2 minutes. Then add flour pre-sifted and mixed with baking soda and knead a not very tough dough.
To prepare honey gingerbread dough, 1 glass of honey is taken for 3 cups of flour. For sugar gingerbread dough, you need 1 ¼ cup granulated sugar.
Candied honey must be preheated to dissolve the crystals, but it should not be boiled. After heating, the honey is cooled to room temperature, after which the dough is kneaded.
When making gingerbread cookies, mix granulated sugar with water, bring to a boil and remove the foam from the syrup with a slotted spoon. Then add butter or vegetable oil, which can be substituted with margarine, stir and cool the mixture to room temperature. If the syrup is very thin, boil it until thick. Then, while stirring, add spices, eggs to the cold syrup, add flour mixed with baking soda last and knead into a soft dough.
